Squishy Brakes 08 Tundra Base

Howdy.

Ever since I bought my Tundra, with 162K on the clock, I've had squishy brakes.

I pulled the calipers and cleaned the pins/sliders (just making sure they were freed up/preventive maintenance - nothing related to the squishy-ness issue,) pads are like new, inspected then bled the lines (twice,) and the problem persists.

On another thread, someone mentioned turning the truck off, leaving the key in ACC, and pumping the brakes for the ABS 'Self Bleed.' Are there any more steps to this procedure?

Any other suggestions?

TIA!

 

Sorry I don’t have anything for you but I’m giving you a bump so someone who does know might see this and give you an answer .

 

Not a mechanic but maybe try replacing the brake lines with stainless steel? They're relatively inexpensive and if you can bleed your own brakes your

 

I bleed my brakes with the truck off. Turn the key to the ON position. I start with the passenger side rear, then driver side rear, passenger front, then driver front. Of course keep pumping each corner until fluid is clean and to make sure there are no air bubbles. And make sure your brake fluid reservoir does not go empty.

 

Can you push the pedal to the floor easily? Does it change if you pump the brakes a bunch?

This can be a huge number of different things based on the info you've provided, so some additional info would help to narrow things down.

 

I read some where. The person recommend to slam on the brakes on a slippery surface. To make the abs kick in and it worked for me. Have to do it a couple of times. I got some firmness into the pedal.

 

Sounds like some air trapped in your lines. I would re-bleed them for sure. As mentioned above wouldn't hurt to go with SS brake lines. I will be doing this when I change out my rotors and pads.

 

From initial post, try bleeding rear brakes as well.. may improve the situation... also inspect your bleeder valves, 1 of mine started leaking so I changed it out..

 

Thanks for the reply.

No, it doesn't change after pumping the breaks or if I jump on them initiating the anti-lock system. (I live in the sticks, deer love to commit suicide around here.)

If I do the "turn the truck off and pump to self-bleed the anti-locks" the brakes are solid after one pump. (if that helps.)

As for the bleeding comments: I did follow that procedure, Pass/Rear, Drvr/Rear, Pass/Front, Drvr/Front... Twice.)

I will order the SS lines, imho, if the lines are to blame and the huge amount of squishyness in them, then the rubber lines must be swelling insanely!

Thanks for all the replies. Very much appreciated!

 

I did a full caliper rebuild and SS lines on my truck and when I went to bleed them I got nothing coming out. I used a mighty vac with only a bit of fluid coming down the line. I then got my wife and had her pump it. Still nothing really came out the line. Finally I just had her turn the key to on, and boom. Fluid started coming out. I'm guessing a solenoid in the ABS just needed some power to open. Don't know for sure, but mine was trial and error until something worked. So, maybe try that like you stated before.