Brake play while initially engaging brakes on a 2014 - feels slightly odd?

This may be premature question, but I'm still learning the Tacoma as it's a whole new vehicle to me.

When I engage the brake pedal while driving or in stop n go traffic the pedal seems to have about 1/8th inch of play before I feel a very slight click as the brakes start to engage. Once the pedal is depressed this sensation goes away until I completely release the pedal at start braking again. It's really hard to describe. The feeling is similar to pushing a thumb tack into a foam core board. There's a little pop and then the tack slides right in.

I checked the brake fluid reservoir and fluid level looks good.

Any ideas?

 

Electronic brake booster. The TRD-OR have it after a certain year for A-TRAC. It's also the cause of the "squish" sound.

 

I searched electronic brake booster and found one other thread similar to mine. ok sounds interesting, so is this a normal behavior? Sure does feel weird, but if its an "is what it is" situation, I guess I'll live with it.

 

If you're worried, I'd take it to a couple of dealerships (the first one will most definitely tell you "it's normal") and ask the tech to take it for a spin with you in the passenger seat. The brakes on mine took a little getting used to, and even now the booster catches me off guard every now and then. I'll be coming to a stop and then all of a sudden the brakes grab hard and I'll end up stopping 6ft short of where I thought I would be. Better that than the opposite I guess...

 

Thanks, I'm not too worried. It's just annoying when "the booster catches me off guard every now and then" Same things happens here. It tends to engage on rough road, when braking before a turn. That's the most annoying. I will definitely mention it at the dealer and maybe theres an adjustment. If not, then so be it. I have yet to pick a solid dealer here in Houston. I'm sure it will take a while and a couple different dealer visits to narrow down the best one.

 

It's slim pick'ns here in Austin, too. There are 3 in town, but they've got so many Toyotas out on the road that they can't handle the volume, so things get overlooked. I've just stopped going to them altogether. I'm 4k away from being out of bumper-to-bumper warranty, and nothing on the truck has begun falling apart, so I'm not too upset about the lack of quality dealerships here.

 

Update... I looked at this closer yesterday. I can very easily pump the brake pedal back and forth with 1/2" - 3/4" of play (front to rear) and no resistance before the brakes engage. Once you push the pedal 3/4" then I feel the engagement and the squish. My previous car had no play and you could really finesse the braking. This feels so odd to me while driving. Maybe I'll get used to it, maybe I can get it tightened up. I'll get under there tonight and see if something is loose, but I'm thinking its probably the way it is....

 

is your truck a 4x4 or a prerunner?

 

4x4

 

Dealership told me it's normal after test drive with tech and visual inspection. They also told me that this is a very common complaint from owners. I got spoiled after owning an F-150 with crappy rear brakes and then moving on to a Subaru with truly awesome braking and reliability. I'll just accept that it sucks and I'll try and get used to it...

 

I got the same story when I took mine in. I now have 45k miles and I don't even notice it anymore. Guess i just got used to it. No issue at all though for braking power. This truck stops as it should. I believe what you are feeling is truly just a quirk of the truck and "normal". Good Luck

 

The booster works, so I'll take squish sound over squish braking anyday.