Fix for 09 Tacoma soft, spongy brakes after pad replacement?

2009 Tacoma 4x4 double cab TRD. I had good brakes til replacing pads and rotors. Now when driving I've always gotta remember to allow more distance for stopping. And can't let anyone drive the truck that's not familiar with it. Pedal goes almost to floor before brakes catch and very spongy. I'd like to know if anyone has found what causes this. I've seen numerous complaints in threads but haven't found anything on a fix.

 

Sounds like there is air in your brake line.

 

I agree, but I had good brakes til replacing pads and rotors. Did nothing to cause air in lines. I did take it dealer. They did vacuum bleed and no change

 

I had this same problem and it turned out to be my rear brakes needing adjustment, Even though I didn't do the rear brakes. They say setting and releasing the parking brake a few times will auto adjust the rear brakess but it dosent work for me.

I just jacked the rear of the truck up and adjusted the star wheel through the small slot on the back of the drum until I hear the pad lightly rubbing inside of the drum and back off a turn.

 

pads seated on the calipers correctly? I think they can only go on one way but not sure. I just did mine recently and didn't notice any performance decrease.

 

x2 on re-adjusting them man I would start there, I just read a thread about this issue and it turned out to be bad rear wheel bearings, ill see if I can find it again

 

I bet you get a firm pedal if you do one pump before you go in for actual braking. What is happening is the rear drums have to fill up with a lot of fluid before pressure can build in the system and that happens finally at the end of the pedal stroke. One pump will fill the rear brake cylinders, and the next one will do actual braking. Dads 1st gen had the same thing happen over time. I adjusted the rears and hes like... holly shit its so much better now.

Adjust the rears then go bed in your pads you put in the front and you should be good.

 

found the post. its buried in the "what have you done to ur 2nd gen today" thread, near the last pages.

This is what it said:
Quick note.

when diagnosing brake spongy brake issues..... check, check and re-check that wheel bearings aren't bad. a bad wheel bearing can cause the brake caliper pistons to push back into the caliper, increasing the pedal travel distance.

just replaced my master cylinder thinking the fluid was going through the bypass and causing soft pedal. Went to get a tire rotation to find the wheel had TONS of play!

p.s Also make sure you don't have any leaks in the system.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I've just about given up on it. What I didn't mention is this is a truck that stays in the garage and only driven from time to time. Been dealing with this for about 2 years. That is when the front pads and rotors were replaced. When I took it to the dealer they suggested replacing the rear, so I let them. It didn't help at all. Same problem. So then they vacuumed the system. Absolutely no difference other than I'm out of pocket 750.00. Now driving the truck a little more and pulling an 18 ft trailer to haul my Polaris so I'm gonna have to do something. I will ck to make certain the dealer adjusted rears properly, and I'll also check all wheel bearings and check for leaks.

 

OK, 2013 Single cab 4x4 MT with 75,000 miles.

I've had a bit of shimmy under braking in certain conditions for some time. I finally got around to having the rotors turned and put some fresh Akebono pads on. I didn't go anywhere near the back of the truck. Much to my dismay I had a very soft pedal / low pedal afterwards. One quick tap on the brakes would bring the pedal back to normal for a moment. Completely inexplicable based on YEARS of working on my own vehicles.

I went ahead and purged some fluid from the calipers. No change.
I pulled the wheels and observed the brakes while the pedal was pressed, pulled everything apart again and double checked the install, purged a bit more fluid and put it back together. No change.
I started thinking how it acted like poorly adjusted brakes. I ALWAYS use the parking brake and certainly apply the brakes in reverse very regularly, but that's not always a guarantee the brakes will self adjust. I went out and applied the brakes and parking brake in reverse about 20 (or a hundred) times with absolutely zero change.

I pulled the rear wheels and drums, took a look, put the drums back on and adjusted until I had a fair bit of drag, there was of course very little to begin with. This was only about 6 clicks. The manual adjusters are very hard to connect with through the access ports compared to most vehicles but it's doable.

Dramatically better. I then backed up a couple of times and it seemed to have an immediate positive adjustment effect. I wonder if they get to a point where the auto adjusters just become ineffective?

So it's fixed, completely back to normal.

WTF. Why this popped up so dramatically after doing the front brakes is the really inexplicable part.

Side note, and something to watch for. I was in the wet grass after this problem first came up and I got some significant wheelspin from a stop in 2WD, I noticed that although the trac light came on it seemed like I couldn't really feel it doing anything. Probably another clue that your rears are out of adjustment.

As you might imagine I'm not the only one to experience this:

 

I recently experienced this issue with my 2009 Tacoma. Thanks for all the info. I adjusted the rear brakes and the soft spongy peddle issue was corrected.

 

Did this entail fresh fluid? I recently did a gravity feed/bleed to replace the brake fluid and I was surprised how much the stopping power improved.