Soft Pedal and ABS Codes after new front Pads

Swapped new front pads on the girlfriends 07' Sequoia tonight and the pedal is way too soft almost to the floor, and it's throwing two ABS codes. Very frustrating. It was getting late so I called it for the night. This is the second set of pads I've done on this Sequoia, and Ive done 3 sets on my 06' Tundra and never had an issue.

I bleed the fronts and got some air out of the drivers side. I'm wondering if I pushed air into the ABS Unit. I haven't bled the rears yet.

Codes are:

C1360 Master Cylinder Pressure Sensor
C1201 Problem with ABS, Possibly front driver wheel speed sensor.

Everything was fine before the pad swap, and I'm not sure what would be causing the soft pedal besides air in the system.

Not much info on these codes. I'm wondering if slamming the brakes on gravel to activate the ABS might help.

 

Why would you have bled the brakes just to swap pads? Albeit only one caliper. Once you crack a caliper to bleed, you need to do all of the other calipers. You most likely got air into the ABS module and you’ll need to bring it in to a shop that can hook up a tech stream to cycle the module and get the air out.

 

I'm assuming he bled because he swapped the pads and the pedal felt mushy, it would be my first inclination also, once I got past debating how air would've gotten in there in the first place... which brings me to:

Curious, what method did you use to push the pistons back into the caliper, as one must do when changing pads? Is it possible you broke one of the piston seals, either due to it being brittle/old or you being too forceful?

That would definitely introduce air into the lines. You otherwise shouldn't see air entering the system on our 1st gen trucks from a simple procedure like swapping pads.

How much did your fluid level rise in the reservoir after the pad change?

 

Correct, I bled the brakes due to the soft pedal.

I have thin C Clamps I use to compress the pistons slowly. I normally do not open the bleeders during brake Jobs, I have 5 old Toyota’s with the same type of brakes, 85, 88, 99, 06, 07, never had this issue.

I used normal bleeding method with two people. I found it strange that air came out of the driver front.

I’ll bleed the rears today and hope that makes a difference.

 

If I'm not mistaken, this can potentially be bad if the pedal is allowed to go all the way to the floor. I think you can damage either the master cylinder or brake booster. The best way to bleed these is by using vacuum or pressure bleeding. I'll do some more research for a definitive answer for you on this, but I'm sure someone with knowledge of brake bleeding procedures will chime in. @shifty`

 

@Diablo169 you should read through this:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/brakes-bleeding-problems.150934/#post-3764478
Specifically this post from @shifty`
The biggest mistake people make with these trucks, other than improperly adjusting the rears - which is often a major source of braking issues and shitty pedal feel - is trying to 'classic' bleed these trucks, i.e. pumping the pedal. They push all the way to the floor and blow out seals, or don't get air out.

Ideal way to bleed these truck is using positive pressure at the MC reservoir. 2nd best way to bleed is hand vacuum at the bleeder.

It is highly likely you still have air somewhere in the system. If so, you're not going to get it out using old school pedal bleeding. If you were able, I'd be shocked.

 

Don't forget to bleed the LSPV (unless you have VSC and it's absent - if "Auto LSD" button exist in dash, you won't have LSPV).

In fact, though people will say bleed passenger rear, LSPV, driver rear, I'd actually bleed the LSPV first to get clean fluid to that junction, because lines split from there to each wheel, IIRC. Makes more sense to me, logically but maybe I'm nuts?

If he had the problem before bleeding and after bleeding, I doubt this is his issue. But yes, definitely, only reason I give that warning is b/c we've had people come on here with mushy pedal after bleeding who blew stuff out jamming pedal to floor. This isn't the only vehicle I've had that pedal travel is too far. First time I did it, I've since always put a 2x4 on the floor out of fear.

 

I’m sure “old school bleeding” would shock some folks, just like the use of water hose method to initially evacuate coolant systems. IMMHO it’s simply a fallacy of certain generations.

 

Let's see a picture of your master cylinder...I'm guessing it's one of those complicated, expensive, all in one booster, ABS, master cylinder units. You may need Techstream or a suitable scan tool to active the ABS pump for bleeding.

 

So update…

I’m working on the girlfriends 07’ 1st gen Sequoia, so rear disc.

This morning I bled the rear brakes, using the old method which sounds like it is not preferred and it made the brakes feel about 80% of what I think they should feel like. No idea why, I did nothing to introduce air into the system. This Sequoia has always had what I would call soft brakes.

So at this point I continued to swap rear pads. Right after, brakes went straight to the floor again, WTF? So I bled them again, using the wrong method, and they got a little better. Then I did a couple 40mph slam on the brakes to activate the ABS in a grass field, and it seems to give me back the “normal” shitty feel it had before I even touched it. Girlfriend drove it and was amazed at how good the brakes were

I would say the pedal has about 2” of squishy travel. Compared to I’d say 1” firm travel I have on my 06’ Tundra. But I have the fancy electronic booster, which I love.

I’m going to read the thread quoted and do some more digging. It’s at least drivable now.

Oh also, I think it threw the codes because I had the key to “run” when bleeding the brakes, don’t ask why, no laws when drinking claws. I cleared the codes and they didn’t come back.

 

If I need to change pads, I need to flush brake fluid. Pads last me 60k+ which ends up being 8 years or so. New brake fluid would be in order anyway. I also would not compress the caliper pistons without cracking the bleeder screws. I’m not sending that horrid contaminated fluid that’s in the piston bores back into my brake lines. Ew. And the “ol skool” bleeding method still works fine. It’s actually really good at moving the air bubbles along. Just don’t floor the pedal.

 

Sounds like air in the lines still.