Soft Brakes!!

[ITSEL33]

Just recently purchased a 96 camry with 109K on the odometer. I had the brakes inspected at goodyear because I had to almost floor the pedal to get it to stop. They inspected it and said it was fine. This cannot be normal, even the wifey thinks something is wrong with it.
Any suggestions.

[Gary_602Z]

Low or soft brake pedal can be caused by a few different things..Rear brakes out of adjustment will normally give you a low pedal on the intial stab on the brakes but a quick hit again will bring the pedal up to normal. Low fliud or a bad master cylinder can give you a low pedal. Also old brake fluid or air in the fluid can cause this. Does the car stop straight without pulling when you hit the brakes. Does the car stop good otherwise? I would get a second opinion.

Gary

[kenny1773]

It is hard to define 'soft' and how far it travels on a forum, but the Gen 3 is known for this issue.

The car should stop wihtout a problem even if the pedal is a little soft or travels a bit too far.

If the car has problems stopping, then you have an issue.

#1 Check for leaks

#2 Check the pads back and front for excessive wear and proper adjustment

#3 Bleed the brake system to get out all the air and to put in clean fluid

See where you are after those 3.

I had my 1995 V6 Camry fail state inspection because the brake pedal was too soft. I appealed to a higher inspector and the guy in charge of state inspections for my region PASSED the brakes after drving the car for 2 minutes. He even said it was a known "issue" with that generation of camry, but was not a safety problem, he just needed to drive it to be sure it wasn't extreme.

[Camrymatic]

I had the same problem on my 94 i4. My master brake cylinder was leaking and thus there was no pressure in the hydrolyc system. The brake fluid is leaking past the main seal in the cylinder when you push the brakes down and this creates that soft feel in the brakes. This job will run you about 400.

[foompla]

frozen brakecomponents wil also give soft feeling.