Brakes! Frustrated. Looking for help.

I've posted about this before. Before this evolved. Looking for feedback I can suggest to mechanic.

06 TRD Sport.
Not a daily driver. Mostly just hunting trips & snowy weather. Several years ago Schwab recommended I change pads/rotors in front. It came back feeling terrible after the brake seating process. Complained & they re-bled & adjusted. Said its all they could do. A year later, time for rear brakes. Same issue, still felt spongey like it wasn't fully engaging
Found a mechanic I trust. replaced master cylinder as they detected a minor leak. Didn't fix it. Pedal still goes almost to floor and not much stopping power.
Next, he said pads were at 80%, but really smooth & that the calipers were not fully engaging. New pads, new calipers... still not much improvement. Lines have been bled numerous times now. Currently, they are blowing them all out separately from all 4 corners.
The new pads/calipers are upgrade from the les Schwab garbage.
What else can I (we) do?
It was way better with the worn out OEM stuff. This all started when Les Schwab got ahold of it, but really don't know if it was something they did or coincidence.
Any help, guidance or suggestions I can pass on is appreciated.
Tearing into drums is next probably.

 

If you’ve replace everything and verified functional, it sounds to me like there’s air in the system, likely the ABS unit.

 

Not saying it's definitely the culprit, or at least all of it, but for what I'm guessing has some miles on it, that sounds like a lot of parts cannon if no one at least checked the shoe adjustment.

Could well still be air in there, but if half your pedal stroke is being used to get the shoes touching the drums, that's going to magnify any other deficiencies.

 

Thank you. It has 185k on it.
Recently Ive had intermittent e-brake light come on while driving. Forgot to mention that. Might be resolved now that master is swapped out. Not sure.
When we say ABS system, that's pretty broad. Can you elaborate?
I'll talk to them about shoes on Monday, but I had schwab look at 2 or 3 times & got the shoulder shrug.

 

Could have a leak. Did you try going on a gravel road and slamming on the brakes at 10-15 mph few times to bleed abs?

 

Definitely

 

Had the same problem with an 08 and ended up gravity bleeding it in the proper order. Is it building any pressure at all?

 

The ABS pump/module can potentially 'hide' air bubbles in its inner workings, that won't be worked out via normal pump the pedal & crack the bleeder brake bleeding. For that there's 'automated' bleeding that runs the ABS module valves to work those bubbles past the inner workings & into the lines on the far side.

I've never messed with it on a Tacoma, it's very common on early-00s GM trucks (which blew hard lines on the regular)... the GMs I can't say really ever needed an automated bleed unless you ran the brake system dry, and even then TBH it was maybe 50/50 in my experience if it was necessary. If you've never emptied the system & someone's really gone to town bleeding the brakes conventionally, my opinion is that's a long shot.

 

the abs solenoid assembly on the passenger side of the front wheel well. Air can be trapped in there because there are pockets that can only be vented by forcing fluid through and exercising the solenoids.

 

Find a garage with the tools to correctly bled thru the ABS system

 

Thanks. I believe they do. Just getting frustrated & hedging my bets by asking the big brains here.

 

Air in your ABS module, as noted. If the MC gets low while bleeding, air gets in and AFAIK you need the correct tool to actuate the ABS solenoids.

 

Lots of info from lots smart people in here

unless I missed it, did you change the rubber brake lines? They will expand when worn, giving you the “sponge”effect

 

Considering it started after front brakes, something was done then. Either a fluid leak or air in system like others suggest.
To bleed abs unit, need either computer tool to cycle it or i think there is a certain way to park inclined maybe with key "on" and doing normal bleed to get bubbles out of it but I don't know details of that method.

 

Sounds like the trouble started when LS put pads and rotors on it. Was the pedal low and spongy? Not much chance air could be introduced just doing pads and rotors. Usually les schwab is hot to do calipers on every car but I guess tacoma fixed calipers are an exception. I wonder if a caliper piston is sticking. That can make the pedal travel feel weird and soft because the other pistons have to travel farther to clamp down.

In the beginning of your post you said LS did pads and rotors, then later you mentioned calipers..

Is the pad wear even? Slanted?

Are the rear brakes adjusted properly?

And you mentioned a brake warning light, is the level full? Does the light go away if you mess with the parking brake handle?

 

Still OEM lines

 

Sorry- LS did pads/calipers/rotors.
Mechanic is doing pad/caliper swap with rebleeding & air purge.

 

It just started before I took it in. Pressing/releasing e-brake had no affect. Seemed to come/go at random.

 

It's your rears. I'm facing the same issue. However, if I manually adjust the rears I get way more pedal and the e brake feels good too. I've pulled the drums and found that the auto adjuster needs replacing... It's supposed to automatically push the shoes out but mine doesn't sure to grime and rust. I can manually adjust though to I rebuild.

Adjusting them is pretty straight forward and there are plenty of videos of you need help, or really any mechanic should be able to do this.

 

Are your caliper bleeders ABOVE the brake line connections? IF they put the calipers on the wrong sides and the bleeders are below the brake lines, you'll never get the air out of the calipers.
I don't know if that's even possible on our trucks, so it's a recliner/armchair suggestion.
Other than that, have the ABS system bled and make sure the rear adjusters are set properly.