2000 Camry LE Soft Brake Pedal
 

Hello All,

I was wondering if there is a trend about why the brakes on the 2000 Camry has a lot of pedal travel and doesn't begin braking until nearly bottoming out. The brakes will engage very hard at the very to close to the end of travel but barely any effect prior to that.

disc front, drum rear and has ABS.

I was reading about bleeding procedure for the ABS unit to get out possible air in lines, is anyone familiar with making the solenoids in that open up for bleeding and the proper bleeding scheme? Rears first then fronts or is it diagonal bleeding?


With ignition off- I pumped the brakes and the pressure builds making the pedal very firm and it holds this pressure and does not leak and drop down. This tells me the master cylinder is good. Any thoughts?


Also which one is better? alldatadiy? or getting the field service manuals(not haynes or chilton)?


Thank you in advance for any responders....I know this car is 13 years old but this one has very low mileage.....

First adjust rear brake shoe clearance. There should be a 0.024 inch difference between shoe major diameter OD (distance between both shoe faces) and drum ID. If you don't have something to measure this adjust shoes so they fit without rubbing on the drum. The shoes are self adjusting when the emergency brake is used.

Bleed the rear brakes first, then front. No extra procedures for ABS.

If still problems bleed the master cylinder then again the brakes.

For service info, Toyota is best, Alldata good, Haynes pretty good for $20 but typically lacks detailed transmission repair info among other things, then Chilton (ditto on lack of info). Alldata would list all TSB info.

Toyomoho,

Thanks for the reply. Do I need to take the master cylidner off the vehichle to bench bleed it or is it "bleedable" on the vehicle?

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, on car.

Remove brake lines from cylinder. Arrange a container to catch fluid coming out of cylinder ports when brake pedal is pressed. Have some one press pedal to floor and hold. Cover ports with fingers to prevent air from coming back into the reservoir then release pedal. Repeat process 3 to 4 times. Reinstall lines then bleed brake lines.

I have the same soft break thing, would a gravity bleed work?

OH, just one more ? on this, I have a Toyota 2006 camry 4 cyl. I do not know what kinda of break fluid they pit in, since I bought this used, is it ok to mix different brake fluids, I was told that the same transmission fluid i use would do, is that true?

Don't use trans fluid for brakes!

The brake fluid reservoir cap should have the fluid type used which may be DOT 3. This is common and available at autoparts stores and in the auto section of department stores.

As to gravity bleed, yes.