Did you bench bleed the master cylinder? Usually bleeding procedure is RR, LR, RF, LF. Furthest from master to closest

 

Ya, I did bench bleed the master cylinder. Could air in the abs can cause so much soft pedal? Does that air in abs affect even when the car is in normal driving?

 

Yes it affects it. Can try bleed abs

 

On my motorbikes (both non & ABS versions) I had to do something else to get firmer brakes. I do a quick demo in this video . This method pushes fluid back into the reservoir & if it can be done quickly enough, it will take air bubbles with it... so hand held won't really cut it

You can do a similar thing on a car and with any luck it may get rid of any air in the ABS. You will need to make sure there is enough room in the reservoir to accept the fluid that will be pushed back, or it will spill everywhere.

I have heard that some ABS systems need to be attached to a tech stream computer, which opens the valves in the ABS, so you can bleed air out of the ABS block. I don't know if the Corolla needs that. Perhaps a Toyota mechanic will chip in...

 

I think you have drum brakes on the back yes? How far does the handbrake pull up?
How many clicks?

Also, I did test out that de-airing method I proposed in post #5 and it did improve the brakes on my scion XB. I would have done it on the Corolla, but that is in a scrap yard now. Here's that video.