Excessive brake pedal travel

My brake pedal on my 2008 Tacoma seems to have a lot of travel. I've drove other ones and those brake pedals don't travel as much as mine. It's not spongy and parking brake works. Does the shoes have to be adjusted? Anyone else have this problem and with adjusting them it fixes the problem?

 

I would say adjust your shoes. 9 times outta ten that's the issue. Then bleed them after if it's still spongy. If your fluid is black, you should flush them anyways

 

might want to check the brake pad wear front and back,adjust rears, bleed system

 

AFTER YOU ARE CERTAIN that the rear shoes are snug and the fluid is clean and properly bled, you can tighten the pushrod travel under the dash at the pedal. This is always done carefully! Make small changes and then test drive.. Go farther if needed..
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If you pump the brake and the travel decreases it could be front wheel bearings.

 

check the calipers and make sure that then arent frozen that will cause that too

 

This happens to me too... I've pretty much checked everything people have mentioned and everything looks good. It's been that way for me since I bought the truck new back in 2010. I've come to the conclusion that's just how it is

 

I will get under there this weekend and check everything mentioned.

 

Same here will be upgrading fronts to see if it improves...rotors, pads and SS brake lines

 

Well I bought 2 cans of brake cleaner. Pulled the drums off sprayed everything off nice and clean And they were way out of adjustment. Adjusted them to where I could just get the drum on. Now the pedal has a lot shorter travel!

 

NIce! Good to hear it ended up being a simple fix!

 

Like these guys said, make sure you don't have any leaks and check your pad wear. But yeah, probably just need to bleed your system. May have some air in it.

 

The brake pedal in my 2013 4-door Extended Cab, 4-cylinder Prerunner (odometer: 19,000 miles) (have owned it 5 years this October) has the exact same excessive travel issue.
If I press the pedal hard enough it will hit the floor (but that takes a lot of force).
The "on the road" braking quality is satisfactory, no pulling either left or right. ABS will activate with substantial pedal effort applied, will lock-up at 2-3 mph.
I finished performing all of the following in an attempt to reduce the excessive brake pedal travel (the complete brake system has never been touched before):
1.) Bled all four wheel positions - the brake fluid was crystal clear (I'm very impressed, fluid is five years old) with zero bubbles
2.) Front brake pads:
-removed, inspected, cleaned them - minimal pad wear, smooth wear on rotors
-(No sliders, four caliper pistons on each wheel - wow! Go Toyota!)
3.) Rear brake drums:
-Removed drums and all internal components
-I needed to manually operate the drum brake shoe automatic adjusters to move shoes away form drums to allow drum removal
-Used bolt holes in drums to install bolts which enabled break-away of drums from axle hubs (first time I have seen that great feature - God Bless Toyota!)
-Drums, shoes: cleaned, inspected - very smooth, minimal wear on drums, shoes (shoes still have factory machining marks on ends of linings because of minimal wear, but shoes DO have wear)
-Blew away brake dust in drums and on backer plates and all components
-Six backer plate and shoe contact points: cleaned, lightly lubed with Syl Glyde
-Automatic adjusters: disassembled, cleaned, lubed with Syl Glyde
-Removed drum gasket material from drums/hubs and installed new gaskets (applied synthetic oil to gaskets to minimize adhesion to surfaces, and possibly allow reuse)
-After reassembly I did numerous backups to activate the drum brake shoe automatic adjusters.
After too many hour of needless work, the excessive brake pedal travel remains absolutely unchanged.
After some miles are added to the linings/pads to reseat them, maybe the excessive travel will decrease - but I doubt that will happen.
My 2013 Honda Civic Hybrid which has 27,000 miles has perfect, minimal brake pedal travel AND excellent brake performance.
What's up with my 2013 Tacoma which I am proud of - except for the excessive brake pedal travel which I don't like?
Please help me resolve this issue without me having to throw $$$ at the Dealership, which I wonder if they would be able to correct.

 

I'm going to start with replacing the master cylindar this coming Thursday... I'll letchall know how that works out.

 

Are you going OEM or AFTERMARKET?

 

If you properly adjust the rear brakes the pedal travel should clear up. This is from the Field Service Manual:

ADJUST REAR DRUM BRAKE SHOE CLEARANCE

(a) Provisionally install the hub nuts. (To hold the brake drum in place)

(b) Remove the hole plug, and turn the adjuster to expand the shoe until the drum locks.

(c) Using a screwdriver, release the adjuster 15 notches.

(d) Install the hole plug.

 

just wondering, if your ebreak is nice and tight would that be a pretty good indication that the rear breaks are adjusted up properly?

 

It could be... If in doubt however it could be checked and adjusted in an hour or two if you are slow.