I had a shop do my brake system on 1987 4runner turbo. Absolutely everything was replaced except for booster. Now the brakes feel mushy and sometimes go to the floor. Pedal is hard when off or will get hard within 1 or 2 pumps. After driving it felt a little better, but not enough. The shop said they bled it real good. Nothing is leaking fluid, and it doesn't sound like a booster problem so could it be as simple as not being bled enough?

 

yep could not have been bled enough

 

They said they used a machine and gallons of fluid. Is there a special procedure or would just driving it around then bleeding again be enough to do it?

 

It either still has air in the lines or you got a defective master cylinder maybe they didnt bench bleed it. Some of those machines are good but you still cant beat the pump, hold, open bleeder method.

 

Sounds like a leaky slave cylinder my rx7 use to do the same thing new slave cylinder fixed her right up

 

The master was new and they actually replaced that already so that is ruled out. If what you mean by slave cylinder is the two rear brake cylinders those were replaced as well and also re-checked. Brakes worked totally fine with no issues before and they still had life left I was just replacing everything while I was at it. I guess first thing to do is bleed it more before throwing parts at it. Am I correct that if booster were to go out pedal would be hard not soft?

 

It could be a defective brand new master cylinder. Or as already said, they might not have properly "bench bled" the new master before they started it.

If you aren't leaking anywhere, then it's likely air trapped in there somewhere.

 

Well that doesn't sound right, letting your rig leave the shop with a mushy pedal that also goes to the floor.
Gallons of fluid, that's just not right.
Take it back and tell them to fix it.

 

As long as the fluid level has'nt gone down you probably don't have a line leak.
Sounds to me like you still have a whack of air in the system... I never trust those bleeder machines... as a pp said you can't beat the old school manual method.

 

As long as the fluid level has'nt gone down you probably don't have a line leak.
Sounds to me like you still have a whack of air in the system... I never trust those bleeder machines... as a pp said you can't beat the old school manual method.

 

Lol never mind I got half ass backwards lol sorry drinking and reading is one of my week points I'm working on ha ha ha manual bleed or maybe they forgot to tighten a bleeder all the way

 

A buddy of mine had the same issue after a brake job at a shop. He brought it over, I found one of the bleeders stripped, they didn't bleed it. Replaced bleeder, bled that brake and things were back to normal. Can also happen because the bleeder itself is plugged and someone might think they opened it but nothing came out so it's fine.

 

make sure your rear drums are also adjusted properly. Seeing more and more that some people dont know how to adjust rear brakes.

 

I would have to agree with 854x4 air in the line. That's seems to be the usual case with spongy breaks.

 

How can I tell if the rear drums are adjusted properly? I was told that they were adjusted to be fairly tight, with a little drag. The parking brake also doesn't hold well but that might be due to new shoes or would that be cuz of bad adjustment? Is there a certain procedure for bleeding the brakes other than going to all 4 corners and doing pump pump push bleed, as in does it work better on an incline or anything?

 

if your parking brake isnt engaging your adjustment is most likely off. and the way i was always told to bleed brakes, start at the farthest brake from the master cylinder, then go the next one closer, third one even closer....etc etc. usually it will be passenger back, drivers back, passenger front, driver front in that order.

 

New shoes should grip better than the old ones.
Check the shoes for misadjustment. There might be air in the sustem... Sometimes the lspv can cause trouble. Or you have a faulty master.

I would talk to the shop and demand my money back. That's poor service charging you for a job they didn't do.

 

youd be surprised at the amount of people that DONT bleed the LSVP and wonder why the brakes dont work.

 

Yes I'm extremely pissed at the shop owner, but I didn't want to leave it there another week with no progress. I'm taking it to a different shop today to have them look at it, then I will take that info back to the first shop. Part of the problem is I know the shop owner and they usually do cars but I confirmed he had techs that knew trucks but that's obviously not the case. Out of curiousity, I was charged 30 hours for complete removal and replacement of suspension and brake system, all parts were replaced. Does that sound like around the time it should take?

 

30 hours for what? even a complete brake and suspension overhaul shouldn't call for that. and don't take it to another shop for them to waste their time just for you to take it back to the first shop. i'm a mechanic, and that ˟˟˟˟ just pisses me off. either let me fix it, or take it back to the people who couldn't get it right the first time. its also possible they put the calipers on the wrong side. you will never be able to get air out of the system like this. i see newbies do this quite often and never be able to figure it out. and cars are no different than light trucks, i don't see why it would matter if they only work on cars usually. not trying to bash folks i don't know, but that sounds like a pretty inept bunch of mechanics. you shouldn't have to come to an internet forum for help when you paid "professionals" to do the job right for you. just my $.02