What causes the brakes to feel firmer at the pedal?

We all know that the 1st gen Tundra/Sequoia brakes leave a lot to be desired. I own a ‘05 Tundra and a ‘05 Sequoia, last week I had new brakes put on the Tundra because they were squeaking really bad after sitting for a few hours, but would stop after a few minutes of use. The mechanic told me that the squeaking was coming from the front brakes, there was still about 20% pad left. I had him replace the front brakes and that did stop the squeaking. The ‘05 Sequoia, which we rarely drive, has a much firmer brake feel than my Tundra with new brakes. The only difference between the two brake-wise is that I added slotted rotors to the Sequoia about 3 years ago. What would cause the brakes to have a more firmer feel at the brake pedal?

Thanks!

 

Rear shoe adjustment makes a huge difference.

That and bleeding the brakes

 

Stay tuned for the ‘Shim Wow! Sham Pow! Mod’ feed back which may be the magic fix to 1st Gen ‘soft pedal’.

Did your new pads have built in shims? If so, what type?

My braking greatly improve on the 2002 when I discover the LSBP valve was bottomed out from factory. I adjust the nuts up and much better braking as the rear shoes are involved a little bit now. I also turned by star adjust a couple clicks at a time on the rears through the slot to adjust the shoes closer to the drum. The parking brake is ‘supposed’ to do this but it doesn’t work as it should. I think due to the drums being original and the slot has formed inside my theory in practice is manually turning the star a 2 clicks at a time until you feel the quicker response. Do not over adjust!

Overall, the truck has always had ‘soft pedal’ compared to other vehicles. The truck has always stopped fairly well its the pedal has to travel farther. The above recco’d adjustments have helped optimize things, but its not a race car.

 

I don’t know. I had the brakes done by a trusted mechanic. I’ll give the LSBP valve an adjustment a try when the weather is better...thanks!

 

The Sequoia is 4 wheel disc that's the main reason it will a firmer pedal and better braking than a Tundra with rear drum brakes.

 

I recently saw an 03-04’ AC Tundra with a rear disc mod performed on it. It can be done. Only one I’ve ever seen and it wasn’t here on the internet.

 

Oooooh OK! Thanks that answers that question! Makes me wonder now, why Toyota didn’t do the same on the Tundra? Well, the brakes are my only complaint with my Tundra...

 

I looked into doing the disc brake mod a while back and it was close to 2k using Sequoia parts. Decided my brakes don't bother me that bad.

 

Its all in the rear drum brake adjustment....

Well, its all in the parking brake adjustment which in turn is responsible for adjusting the rear drum brakes.

 

Had brake work done yesterday along with drain/fill of Fnt/Rear Differential, Transfer Case and Transmission fluids. After back and forth discussing with Master Tech, chose not to add the shims. Rear shoes and wheel cylinder still good and had him simply clean things up. Once recouped from knee surgery, will want to replace rear shoes myself next spring....thickness were only 5-6 mm after 75K miles since last they were worked on.

 

Yeah, I didnt get to it this weekend. Even when I do, my results may not be adequate since my seals are leaking again and my drums are probably full of diff juice again. Maybe this long break over turkey day will give me time to do both.

 

One component that can have a big effect on how firm the brake pedal feels is the power brake booster.

You can test this by applying the brakes before you start the engine; the pedal will be high and hard if the system is properly adjusted and bled. When the engine is started, vacuum is generated for the booster, and the pedal will sink deeper even with your foot firmly on the pedal. One might mistake this for "softer pedal", but it's actually because the booster is generating far more actuation force than your foot alone.

I don't know the specific cause for the difference you're observing, but the boosters of the two vehicles may have different capacity. I'm sure OEMs try to engineer vehicle power brake systems to the same standards and for same feel, but maybe the Tundra booster is slightly oversized compared to the Sequoias. Just saying. Probably a theory to be tested by more research on the booster specs, weights of the two vehicles, etc.

 

IIRC, the tundras is smaller. You have to put the sequoia one in if you do rear disks since the tundra one doesn't have enough pressure. I think.