engifineer

I would have to feel what you are saying before deeming it "normal" or not. Take it to a good private mechanic and have them check it out for you. Every car will have a different brake feel, so without driving it it is hard to tell if you have a real issue or not.

Trust me, after this weekend there are a few cones that would like to thank my brakes for reeling the car in at very short distances

JahJosef

My '05 tC is the same way. I just turned the rotors and put new pads on at 90K miles. Has a soft brake pedal feel, but so does our '03 Camry.

JoeyC20

Thanks guys. Yea my car stops fine. ive slammed on the brakes and it responds. Just the pedal is soft and the brakes dont catch right away.

andrewmartinez42

I had the same exact problem with my Scion . The brake pedal would sink half way down and would some times take two pumps to stop. My first thought was that i needed to bleed the the brake lines for any possible air in the lines. I bled all four with the correct procedure and still no improvement in brake feel. My second thought was It could possibly be the ABS unit because my brake pads were fine but I wanted to first narrow down any other possibilities so I took it to the Toyota dealer and had them see if they could figure out the problem and they told me that i needed to change the master cylinder or bleed the brakes ( they had no clue if this would really fix the issue). So I changed my master cylinder and re bled the brakes AND STILL no CHANGE! Finally i brought it to a random mechanic down the street from my house and I told him if he could help me figure out the problem. So he checks all my brakes and figures out that my front brakes weren't completely clamping or so he said that whenever i stepped on the brakes they would clamp BUT not disengage back to its original position which was causing a spongy pedal feel. So the brakes were basically stuck/frozen from dirt or brake buildup. SO what he did was he took the brakes apart and sprayed every crevice within the brakes and VOILA they were fixed! I don't know if this could be the problem your having but it happened to me and have never heard of anyone having this problem.

_____

Domo

iTrader: (3)

both my tCs are fine with the brakes.

JoeyC20

Thanks guys. Yea i actually beleive something isnt right. I was driving my moms car the other day and went back to drive my car and i really noticed how bad the brakes are. I think i got used to it and didnt notice it much before. The brakes dont grab until the pedal is almost all the way pressed in. My friends have driven my car and were scared to drive the thing.

Ive searched and searched. Have seen other posts with the same problem and no resolution by bleeding the lines or changing the master cylinder.

Im going to take it in this week and have someone look at it.

Do you guys think if i called a toyota dealership they would be aware of the problem and be able to give me an idea of what it is? Toyota has been in some ____ recently so maybe they will be more helpful because they are trying to keep customers.

andrewmartinez42

They might be more helpful or they could just be lazy and tell you the same thing they did to me " first we will bleed your lines, then change your master cylinder, then replace your brake booster" when none of these solutions worked!!! take my advice take it to a good brake mechanic and have him inspect the brakes himself and i almost guarantee that the brakes aren't functioning properly.

JoeyC20

Yea they didnt give me any sort of answer. he just said he hadnt heard of any sort of recall regarding the brakes. Said it could be a number of problems. I think im having the same issues you were having though. Sometimes when i pump the brakes it grabs a bit earlier but either way they grab really late sometimes even right before the pedal is about to hit the floor. Some days its not as bad as others either. I wonder if my brakes are having the same issue as yours. Thanks again. Im getting it looked at this week.

Lil_Deuce_tCoupe

iTrader: (9)

^ This was from my first reply on page 1.
One of the techs had suggested sticking calipers as a possible cause for mine too. However, I checked them all when I replaced the rotors and pads - none were stuck or binding. Cleaned and lubed all the sliders to be sure, didn't make a difference.
Interested to see what they find on yours.

JoeyC20

Damn. yea i guess ill try and find out. Ive been driving my car and it feels unsafe but when i slam on my brakes to test them they stop fine. It would be nice to just have this figured out. Ill post when i find out anything

tCing_U

How about the guys that changed their whole brake system into one of those big brake kits? I wonder if it changed it totally, more stopping power, feels safer to drive?

I drove my friends Neon SRT4 and the brakes on that thing is pretty strong, less pedal distance too!

Now I saw on those Import Tuner magazines the Scion tC TRD brakes. Did anyone try those as a replacement?

JoeyC20

Yea i dunno. i dont have a grand to spend on a big brake kit.

JoeyC20

So i took my car in today to get looked at was told that i needed a new master cylinder. Is there a way that they can difinitively tell it is a faulty master cylinder or is it mostly guesswork? Im asking this because i dont feel like spending 300+ dollars for something if my brakes are going to be the same way after its changed.

Im just skeptical because ive searched and read other people with this problem were told it was a master cylinder and when they got it replaced nothing changed.

What do u guys think?

tCing_U

Its not covered on your warranty or something? Did you ask them why you needed a new master cylinder? I would tell them what I expect when my master cylinder is changed, and if theres no difference and feels the same..."I want my money back _______!" LOL. But our cars wasnt built for performance though, its an economy car, I would expect it to be what it is.

Oh by the way, Im in Hawaii and the Scion Dealer here said that they dont do the TRD brake system. And so i asked them if they could order it for me and they said no they cant. WTF?

drivinkrn

i'm at 88,xxx and haven't felt anything yet ...i hope it doesn't happen to me .. :/

jjp735i

I have 70,000 on mine now and just did all new pads and rear rotors. My pedal never felt bad, but now it feels great. Catches right when applied. I think it had more to do with the rear rotors.

I also adjusted the parking brake when I had the rotors off.

I'm using Wearever Gold pads all around.

jjp

drivinkrn

how often are you supposed to change your rotors?
cuz i never have changed mine out. only pads....

Hayseed

iTrader: (1)

I'm at 52k miles, and although my brakes feel fine and look fine upon inspection, they are squeaky as hell...hope nothing bad happens to me...

JoeyC20

Nope its not covered under warranty. I told them the issues i was having and told them that i reseatched some and couldnt come up with any real difinitive answer and if they could take a look at them. They said it needed a new master cylinder. I asked are you sure and he said yes.

Im just curious if there is a way they can difinitively tell that the braking issue is due to a bad master cylinder? Like is there a way to tell if the master cylinder is bad or do they just go by symptoms and what they think it is?

JoeyC20

Okay, so i wanted to update people on my brakes. They are fixed now and my pedal is back to normal. I took it to a local mechanic and he said it was the master cylinder so i ordered one and it was replaced and no change in braking. He thought maybe it was a bad master cylinder but i told him i doubted it. He said he was going to inspect them again and rebleed the brakes. So, he inspected them, found that i needed a new brake caliper anchor on the one front side, rebled them and said there was some air in the abs unit, changed the rear brake pads because they needed to be replaced. Im not really sure what did it. I know that it wasnt the master cylinder. It may have been because of that brake caliper anchor or could have been due to the air in the abs unit. Eiether way its fixed and it wasnt too expensive.