Toyota - Camry :: 2003 - Pedal Will Travel Excessive Distance Before Any Braking Action
Jan 24, 2012
I own a 2003 Toyota Camry SE four cylinder sedan with only 46,000 miles. The car has four wheel disc brakes and an anti-skid braking system. About a year ago, I started to notice that there was excessive travel in the brake pedal. That is, the pedal will travel an excessive distance before there is any braking action. I have tried to correct the problem by pumping the brakes as I back out of my driveway to engage the self-adjusting mechanism; doesn't work. I have also gotten in the habit now of pumping the brake pedal; that works a little, but it's not a solution. Being an old chap who always maintained my car myself, and diagnosed and repaired most problems, I concluded that the problem was the master cylinder because when stopped at a light, the brake pedal would continue to go down. Incidentally, there has been no loss of brake fluid since I bought the car new in 2003. Recently, I had the master cylinder replaced and learned that I'm not as car-smart as I thought. There is no improvement in the pedal travel problem.
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My husband and I put a new master cylinder in this vehicle recently. We bled the system but there is still excessive pedal travel. We tried bleeding the system again and had the same results. There are no apparent leaks in the brake system.
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So I finally towed our new to us travel trailer home tonight and the spot I created at my house to park it in required a lot of backing to get it shoe-horned in its place. As I was almost finished I smelled a burning smell and my wife said she saw some smoke from under the hood. I had neglected to look at my newly installed trans temp gauge during all the maneuvering as I was watching my mirror and the trailer so closely.
The gauge had reached ~180F and it was only about 55F outside. I know this violated the ambient plus 100 rule, so I allowed it to idle and cool down to 140 or less. When I got the trailer unhooked and the Ex back in the garage I crawled under it and the smell was definitely burnt tranny fluid and it was coming from the front of the bell housing or the access hole for the torque converter, not 100% sure.
So my question is, have I toasted my tranny, or was it just a mild overheat situation and it will recover just fine? If I am towing and the trans temp gets above 180 again will it start leaking most likely? Is it just something like a pump seal that I could drop the tranny and replace relatively easily, or have I most likely done internal damage. Hoping I did not just cost myself a tranny build on a truck with only 73k miles :-(.
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New to me 2002 F-250 PSD, done brakes all the way around for piece of mind.
Job went very well, replaced one caliper and its bracket, serviced all pins and replaced one set of pins as well, (different corner). Bled brakes all day via gravity, watching reservoir and filling as needed as to flush in new fluid. Truck is in great shape. Mileage 153,000 no rust, turned all rotors just to re-surface.
Now here is what's happened, my pedal is good but it pulses in the first 1/2 inch of travel and once passed that no pulse, got under and watched the pedal rod do this as I very easily touched it in that first 1/2 inch of travel, you don't even begin to get much brake started here if any! Truck running; yes-Truck not running no pulse action occurs.
I'll add this: fluid removed had a green tint to it but had no moisture or bad odor. Different fluid??? I didn't know. Used Dot 3 Off the shelf O'Reilly's.
Hydro-booster didn't like fluid? Air? Master cylinder? No leaks before or after this procedure.
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Here's an interesting problem our B5 (2001 1.8T) has experienced recently -- When backing up and then applying the brakes there's very little effective braking occurring, sometimes to the point of the pedal traveling almost to the floor. I've recently had the brake pads and rotors checked -- all rotors are OK and the front pads are "almost new" condition. The rear pads were showing significant wear and I had those replaced, but we're still seeing the same problem.
I can also tell that braking action driving forward feels less than optimal, although not nearly as troubling as when attempting to stop in reverse. I'm suspicious of a problem with the vacuum assist unit, either a bad hose or possibly a defect in the boost unit itself. Can the VW shop definitively test the appropriate vacuum line(s) to the booster and the booster unit itself for a problem?
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Sons saturn will not go into gear after a hard braking action. The shifter will move, the car just acts like it is in nuetral, engine revs with gas, no movement in any gear or reverse. After waiting for a few minutes he can put it in gear and go as if nothing happened. I have checked the fluid, its nice pink and clear and full. He says it has happened 3 times in the past week, has driven it for over a year with no major problems. He is 17, but seems decent with a manual.
I have tried to replicate but can not the car drive good, no shifting problems on normal driving and no check engine lights.
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Along with the many other quirks of my 98 Toyota 4Runner, whenever I have to hit the brakes suddenly and hard it takes my car at least 30 seconds to become responsive to the gas pedal. When I try to accelerate, I can hear the engine rev, but the car doesn't move. Is this a brake issue, or could it be a transmission issue? I have 230k on it.
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I have a 1992 Toyota Camry. It had been burning gas, losing powere, white smoke smoking excessively through the tailpipe, and idling extremely rough, sometimes to the point of dying. It ran ok at highway speeds, but terrible everywhere else. We figured that it was getting moisture into the engine. We essentially did an upper engine overhaul, replacing gaskets and parts as necessary. It ran fine after this, and then three weeks later, started having the same symptoms. I found gas in the oil, changed oil, which turned it to run smoother, but still smoked and died at idle. I found out the clutch fan barely blows. I can't afford to get an actual mechanic involved, but I don't know where to look next.
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I have a 2001 Civic LX; I would like the clutch pedal travel distance to be far less than it is.
As in most manual cars, I find that the clutch pedal travel is mostly useless. That is, once the clutch is fully engaged, the pedal still has a goodly way to go before it hits the stop. On pedal depression the inverse is true. As modern hydraulic clutches are self-adjusting, this once-necessary extra distance is pointless.
(I would rather clutch with my ankle than my whole leg. If I could cut the pedal travel in half (or more), I would like that very much.) Is this possible? How would I do such a thing?
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A friend brought me a car with the issue that the brake pedal sinks to the floor when braking. She said it was never low on fluid so I replaced the master cylinder and bled all of the lines with a friend pumping the pedal. The pedal would still sink to the floor. I tried vacuum bleeding the brakes and found that the front left consistently had large bubbles.
I Teflon taped the fitting on the calliper and the bleed screw which improved the problem but didn't fix it. I then replaced the calliper. The front left calliper still won't bleed and the brake pedal still goes to the floor. When I bleed it the regular way, the fluid comes out of the bleeder like it bled nicely. Neither of the rubber hoses that connect to the calliper have any visible damage. I had a friend pump the brakes while looking at the hoses and their is no bulge or swelling in them. Could the ABS need to be bled?
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I have a gen II Prius 2007 with 115,000 miles on it ...
When I use my brakes at low speeds under 15 mph, there is a bit of extra brake travel before they engage properly ...
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Is this normal? You can hear the air coming out.
The reason I ask if it's normal is because it seems like I have to press my brake pedal halfway down before it engages. At least an inch or two. However I can still lock up the beaks. But it seems like they are not as sensitive. Takes a bit of travel to engage.
I've already bled the brakes too.
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So I just had my entire clutch replaced while another repair was taking place. What I've noticed is the "clutch engagement" has changed. Where as I would have the clutch start to engage/disengage at the 1/2 way point on the pedal travel is now the last 1/4 of the pedal. Is this a "normal reaction to a new clutch that just takes getting used to or is there an adjustment I can fine turn it with? Do I just have to wait for it to "break in"? When I replaced the clutch on my dearly departed 94 ranger, I replaced the bearings & disc only reusing the pressure plate and did not have this issue.
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When braking i would feel the pedal pulsating...figured the pads were finished. Checked them out and they were not in that great a shape so I changed them all around. I'm still getting a pulsating feeling in the brake pedal.... I just need to bleed them or are the discs warn or warped or something?
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I've got a 2005 Toyota Camary. It has a high pitched squeak that occurs off and on, but always disappears the second I press on the break. It sounds like it's coming from the driver's side... possibly the driver's side rear?
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I took delivery last week of a new 2012 F250 with a 6.7 Power Stroke Diesel. This is my third F250 with a Power Stroke Diesel. My first one was a 1997 w/7.3 PSD and my last one was 2001 w/7.3 PSD which I traded in for the 2012.
Now for my problem. The brakes seem spongy to me. When I am applying the brakes I get what seems like a longer than normal pedal travel (to me anyway) and soft. The braking isn't as good as my last two F250's. If I pump the brakes, the brake pedal firms up and the braking really improves. I have not contacted my dealer yet.
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When braking or accelerating or when hitting pothole I hear plastic noise (like when someone pack walmart plastic bags) from either driver front door panel (or insulation around door) or pillar between front and back door on driver side only. I hear same kind noise but much lower noise when pulling up window (only when it reaches top, not all the way...). It is only driver side and not passenger side. Other than that car is so quite (specially with my Defender tires), that any kind of noise is driving me crazy...
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I have Toyota Camry 2011 4-dr LE. While I was on a road trip recently, the car did something very odd. The vehicle started to cut out and it then stopped. I have to note that it was at a high altitude (somewhere in the Colorado Mountains). After the incident I was able to start up again and the vehicle operated as expected. This is not the problem I wanted to ask about, however I thought I would mention it in case you think it might be related.
Here is the problem I have: When coming to a slow stop or driving in the slow traffic, sometimes the vehicle seems to accelerate when the break is released, as if I have pressed the gas pedal. I would expect that once slowed down the Camry will maintain its speed. Other times while my foot is still on the brake pedal (lightly pressing it during a slow down) I would feel as if I have released the brake for a second and the car accelerates (at which time my reflexes kick in and I press the pedal harder). In addition, the transmission seems to hesitate on up shift. I have noticed multiple times that the transmission does not shift on-time and I could feel it when I drive slower.
So here is my question: Could the problem with acceleration during braking be also related to transmission down/up shift problems? Since the problem with brake malfunctioning and engine acceleration is very infrequent, when I took the car to the dealer they could not find anything wrong.
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I just bought a 2009 Toyota Camry with 78K miles on it. Everything is great except at highway speeds it shakes and vibrates when braking. The higher the speed the worse it is. Steering wheel shakes as well. I pulled both front tires off and the rotors appear to be smoothe on both sides with no grooves, etc. However, I'm due for new front brake pads. There's some pad left but could that be why it shakes and vibrates when braking? How do you tell if rotors are warped? Rotors are smooth but could they still be warped?
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On my 2006 Camry, my ABS comes on intermittently when braking (~5% of the time) and the speed is very slow (5 mph or less). Exact speed is hard to say. I think one of the ABS sensors is misreading. No ABS fault light on dash.I have an explanation of how to check the sensors for AC voltage when spinning the wheel using a DVM.
1. Without a lift can I check this under the hood instead of at the wheel? Possibly at the plug into the ABS module.
2. Someone else on another thread mentioned that their dealership hooked in a monitor and drove around.
When I asked my dealership how they would diagnose this, they said they would do the same check as I mentioned above (#1). This would be expensive and since it is intermittent, they might not see anything. Do this monitor exists and what it is called?
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My 2000 Toyota Corolla, automatic, loses power when I decelerate after driving for a short distance when I am entering the freeway and trying to accelerate on the ramp and then into traffic. The car never dies or turns off, but loses power and "coasts"; as I coast along and try to get out of the traffic, I press the accelerator pedal almost to the floor and within 5-10 seconds the car will roar to life and accelerate like it's getting all the power it needs. That's usually the end of it for that day...however, there is often some hesitation as I continue driving. This doesn't happen all the time, but almost always when it's been outside all day and the temperature has been at freezing or below...usually when my car has sat all day while I'm at work. My mechanic hasn't had time to look at it yet but has suggested perhaps a bad switch of some kind or maybe a dirty switch. Also, this may be unrelated, but often before this happens the brake light will sometimes come on and stay on...even though the brake isn't on, nor has it been on while parked. This never has happened in the mornings after my car has been in the garage all night.
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