My wife drives a 2013 Ford Edge that we have for many yrs. The car has been a real good car never had a issue with it until about a year ago. Last year she took it to a auto repair shop and had the front brake pads changed. When she got home I noticed the pedal was soft, told her to take it back and tell them. She took it back and re bled the brakes and had a good pedal. Few months go by the pedal goes soft again she takes it back them and the mechanic said that's just how ABS brakes which i knew was BS. It eventually gets even worse so I buy a new master cylinder and put it on and bled the system manually no scanner as i don't have one. Pedal gets no better so i take to another shop thinking maybe it needs to pressure bleed and scanner bled.The shop comes back and says the Master cylinder is bad even though it's new, they put on another master cylinder but again pedal is soft going to floor. They don't charge me for the work they did and tell me the passenger front driver side calibers aren't engaging. So it goes to a 3rd mechanic and he says the master cylinder is bad because the last place used too much pressure and blew the seal out of the Master cylinder and that's probably why they didn't charge me and the rear brake pads were almost metal to metal which no other shop informed me of this. So I have the master cylinder yet again and he changed the rear pads and cleaned out the ABS pump. But again soft pedal that goes almost to the floor before it stops good. So after some research we come to a conclusion that the ABS pump and Booster is probably bad. So i have him put a new Booster on and a used ABS pump since a new one is $900 from Ford. He has bled the system at least 20 times checked the brake lines for leaks and still have a soft pedal that goes almost to the floor. So after 5 Master cylinders new pads front and rear ( year apart ) new Brake Booster and changing ABS pump the car still isn't fixed. What else could be the issue causing the pedal to be soft and going almost to the floor.
Geez did any of these "mechanics" think to replace the inexpensive flex hoses?
I have thought about that and have looked at some scanners on Amazon to buy myself they range from $150 to $1,000 but finding out which one is compatible for her car is not that easy on Amazon.
You might want to check this one out, moderately priced for a bidirectional scan tool at about $300, and it claims to do brake bleeding. Of course you would want to confirm compatibility with your vehicle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=781x0p1BpKo&t=0s
I should also have mentioned there are scan tool recommendations in the FAQ, as well as the "Tools" link at the top of the page.
It's pretty clear that whoever is doing this work doesn't know what they are doing at all. Find somebody else. Usually, bleeding the brakes with the ABS system requires a high level bi-directional scanner to set the ABS solenoids.
I have thought about that and have looked at some scanners on Amazon to buy myself they range from $150 to $1,000 but finding out which one is compatible for her car is not that easy on Amazon. So not sure which one I should by. I will also add that the place i took it to before this mechanic ( big well known chain shop ) used a scanner to bleed the system and all they ended up doing is blowing the seal out of two master cylinders and that's why they didn't charge me
A good independent mechanic with the proper tools can do this job, easily. But if you want to invest in a very expensive scan tool for your own use, have at it. Chain stores need to avoided at all costs.