Replaced Ball Joints, Breaks acting Strange

2005 Tacoma TRD Off, Road Access Cab, V6, Auto, 167K miles

I've recently replaced both wheel bearing assemblies. Went to for an alignment, had to replace ball joints. Did uppers and lowers on both sides with Moogs. Calipers were taking off the rotors. Drove fine for the first 100mi or so, then the brakes started acting up (i.e. Going to the floor, pumping to stop). Bled both front sides and now they seem to grab intermittently, as in occasionally you stop right away or your to the floor and pumping then the truck will lurch and you feel them grabbing.
Front brakes (calipers, pads, rotors) have been done twice in the past 2 years. 2nd time due to stuck piston. Brakes were fine before doing ball joints. Pry bar was used to back pad off rotor to get calipers off.
Was told that if bleeding them didn't help it may a bad booster. Any ideas?

 

That's odd but may be coincidental. If nobrake lines were disconnected, there shouldn't be any need to bleed the system. A bad booster wouldn't cause the pedal to go to the floor without braking the veh but a bad master cylinder would.

 

From what I understand is that if you have the truck off and pump the brakes and if the pedal gets firmer with each pump then the booster is good... If that is good I'd go with a master cylinder... I had to change mine for a similar issue

 

On a scale of 1-10, can anyone rate the difficulty on changing the master cylinder? I've got limited experience.

 

It's not that hard... As long as you bleed everything correctly including the master cylinder. It's only a couple bolts and a couple of lines

 

Anyone know where I can find braided stainless brake line? If I'm going to have to do the master cylinder, I figure I might as well go all out.

 

Re-bled both fronts. No consistency on the pedal still, i.e. to the floor, pumping, and grabbing high... Any further input is greatly appreciated. On a further note ABS sensors were unplugged from calipers when doing ball joints, can these be put on backwards, upside down, and have adverse effects? Or would this not affect anything?

 

You have air in ABS system.
Find yourself long stretch of dirt road, speed up and hammer the breakes until ABS kicks in. Hold the brake pedal until truck stops. Do that few times going forward and backward.
EDIT: Afterwards you need to bleed brakes again because air from ABS will be pushed into the lines
or
you have to go to Toyota dealership to bleed ABS unit

 

Seized piston caliper, again, is the correct answer. Anyone else finding this to be a common problem? I don't drive it hard, but I do drive it alot. This will be the 3rd set of calipers going on. 2005 with 167k. Can someone tell me I just got bad parts?

 

You got bad parts...

 

I'm also having the same intermittent spongy brake problem since about a week ago. Been trying to rack my brain figuring it out before giving in to the stealership. How did u figure it was a caliper piston? This sounds like it makes sense in my case as the problem surfaced out if nowhere without the brake system being opened and with no signs of a brake fluid leak anywhere on the system.

I don't think I've got a bad master cylinder as the system holds pressure and stops just fine after the pedal is pumped. The pedal doesn't fall to the floor after pumping it up with engine on or off.
Anyone know a home diagnostic check I can do before making an appt at the dealer? I'd like nothing more than to fix it without them.

 

I had the same problem about six weeks ago. I unfortunelty took it to the dealer and it was diagnosed and fixed as a bad master cylinder. No fluid leak in the system but the tech thought it might be an internal leak in master.

 

Thanks. Some more Google searching convinced me of the same thing. I ordered one today. Should be ready tomorrow. Hopefully avoided a trip to the dealer. Got a reman for $116. I'll chance it on the reman over $270 for the oem. Hopefully its all good.