2004 Toyota Highlander Base V6 134,000 miles. Had master cylinder and booster replaced (Advics Brand). Brake cylinder replaced about 1 year ago and booster replaced about 1 month ago. Brake pedal was going to floor so I had the brake cylinder replaced last year which fixed the problem for a little while. Problem came back about 10 - 12 months later and the brake pedal was spongy and soft so I replaced the brake booster which led to a shorter stopping distance and pedal was fine for a few days. Each time the brake fluid was flushed. Replaced front rotors and brake pads last year as well. There are no lights on at the dash.
Now the problem is sometime the brakes respond right away and sometimes they will go down halfway or three-fourths of the way down, but most of the time it is halfway down before they will respond. I have to now push on the brake pedal slowly as well otherwise the car will bounce a little bit harder than normal and push me forward a little in the drivers seat a little bit. I replaced my suspension 2 years ago so that should not be the problem.
Other noises it is making is when I am in reverse there is a noise coming from the drivers side wheel area after stepping on the brake. Sometimes can feel the brakes applying to hard as well. Sometimes there is a noise near the brake pedal after releasing it a little bit then pushing on them again when they act up.
I dont know what is going on. Maybe a warped rotor? bad suspension? Defective master cylinder? Bad ABS? (that would be an expensive part). This is getting kind of tiring trying to figure this one out because if I take it to a mechanic they will just say they could not get the brakes to act up like they did at the dealership I took it too. Maybe I should take it to a brake specialist that only works on brakes but nowadays if it doesn't show up on the scan tool a lot of mechanics dont know what to do.
If the issue is intermittent, you may check the ABS system. To do that, you need a higher level scan tool that has bi-direction functionality.
That is an expensive part to replace. I guess that has not been checked out yet. The only thing is there is not lights on the dashboard. It is kind of weird.
Get it scanned and go from there.
Well I took it to a shop and they pressure tested the hydraulics and the master cylinder was bad due to incorrect pressure or something like that. I originally had ADVICS which is the OE manufacture. Now I know for master cylinder you should always go with the dealership part. We will see if this fixes the problem.