No brake pedal pressure after bleeding

Not only should you request a bleed you shouldn't pay them for making it worse.

Did they bleed the ABS System?

You also probably need to have the rears properly adjusted before you do anything they will greatly effect the pedal if they are too loose.

 

As far as I know they did not bleed the ABS system. When I go back tomorrow I will ask that their tech bleeds it properly for as long as needed and ask him about bleeding the ABS system too.

 

Did you adjust the rear brakes when you reinstalled them?

 

I did not but that is only because I did not remove the shoes after taking off the drums. I detached the e-brake brackets which gave me enough slack to remove the shaft with the brake assembly still intact.

 

@Jimmyh how true.
Rear brake adjustment is critical to having a decent pedal.
For the pain in the ass that the manual calls out as the procedure, it does lead to having a nice pedal at the end of the day. It's also a job I'd prefer to do with a lift, rather than contorted in some sort of new yoga position.

OP, don't let them blow you off about bleeding the ABS either. I don't know if there are other options out there other than Toyota's Techstream software to do this though.

You can find the cable and software needed with a little searching and do it yourself.

 

I'll see about the ABS as well. Pedal to the floor with zero brake power could really be tied to a need for rear shoe adjustment? That's wild to me, only because I always thought most of the stopping power came from the front brakes. This is probably a silly question - but would only bleeding the front calipers and not the rear bleeder screws make a difference? I'm wondering if the folks in the shop only bled the front calipers.

 

What happens is that as the front brakes wear, brake fluid takes up that space behind the caliper piston.

The rear brakes are held open with springs pulling on each other, compressing the pistons back into the wheel cylinder everytime you take your foot off of the brake. As the rear brakes wear,. The star adjuster takes up space. If they're out of adjustment, more brake fluid is needed to push the shoes out farther, resulting in a lower pedal.

 

Yes the rear shoe adjustment can cause this.

Bleeding just the front would be stupid, I hope any shop would know better.