99 limited almost no brake pedal

Hey-new here and tried to search best I could. I know 3rd gen runners have poor braking as they are, and I’m no novice when it comes to cars and trucks as it was my career for 14 years lol. But my 99 limited has me at a stand still.

vehicle is a 1999 4Runner limited

I’ll give the best detail possible. Purchased 3 years ago and it had a lot of issues along with brakes . Replace the shoes and drums at the time along with both axles seals and bearings. Still low pedal but would stop ok with bleeding . Next weekend I replaced front pads and rotors bleed the whole system key on, key off, running with no change. Drive it like that for about a year figure it was the best it would get. Swapped new tires and 5th gen wheels and while I was there I put new rubber lines up front since they are probably original. Bleed the front calipers and wow it stopped on a damn dime. While I was at the back I noticed my passeneger rear axle seal was wet on the drum so I changed that out again, rebleed the system and I’m back to where the pedal started maybe 2/3 from the floor, bleed and bleed but never got the pedal back to the one day it was amazing. ( I always kept the rear adjusted )

few months go by and I figured I’d just changed out all the hardware and adjusters, changed shoes drums springs parking brake cable cleaned all the pivot points for the parking brake, adjusted the handle aswell.

figured mine as well do my lift- tundra 5100s on middle perch on 881s rear 890s I think with 5th gen 4Runner rear shocks. Changed all my bushing to poly in the rear-upper and lower arms( had to get a replacment(junkyard ) upper arm since there was to much rust in the bushing slot)
new upper arms aswell- has new lower arms maybe 2 years old at this time.

whole front and rear suspension is 2 years old max.

did the tundra upgrade with 13wl calipers(used) but clean , pads and rotors and new hard lines to the calipers bleed and no change, did extended brake lines front and rear and bleed the poop out of them- no change

Drove it for an alignment 15 min from my house and while braking it still @$$ but last bit of pressure it would pull in either direction like a caliper was letting go and regeabbing? But would pull and the steering wheel would go the other way , had the alignment done and they didn’t see any issues in the bushings and the alignment it spot on, drove home and same issue with the pulling and low brake pedal.

got an2nd car while that one sites. 2 months ago had my nephew come over and we bleed from the master to the wheels 3 times and no change but some air did come out of the lines at the abs. (new master a year old Carquest .)

waited a week and redid it again bleed each line and and starting from the master to abs to the wheels,

so all new parts minus abs module

master, lines, calipers pads rotor ex, shoes drums hard wear and adjusters.


Anyone have any idea wtf is going on lol I need this truck to be able to have a good pedal and aswell not
Pull when braking as it definitely set up for snow/ bad weather and somewhat off roading- no leaks from any lines.

 

Can't help with the pulling, sound like a caliper not engaging properly....BUT on the low pedal you may have air in the ABS system portion, I believe you have to have a Toyota scan tool to get the ABS valves to open so you can get all the air out....BUT many say you can trigger the ABS system by getting it to lock up the brakes on a gravel or dirt road and then bleed the system again, doing that several procedure more times should get any air trapped in the ABS system out, let us know if it helps!

 

I’ve tried that a few times, issue I have is that the pedal is so low when they actually grab I couldn’t get the abs to trigger, and now that that fixed the 2 manhole covers that used to trigger my abs I’m SOL lol

 

Are you sure the rear drum brakes are adjusted properly, if they need some adjustment even a little bit it will show up as a low brake pedal?

 

I’m sure, I’ve had the drums off countless times set the drag and all, for testing purposes I even “over tighten” the adjusted and under tighter and doesn’t change the pedal distance

 

Doubtful rear drums will cause a low brake pedal like that. Sounds like a bad ABS module.

Had this issue on a 2015 Mazda 5. Had all the calipers replaced, bled the lines, new rotors and pads, bled the lines, new MC and bled the lines....

Last thing replaced was the ABS unit and that did the trick. There is a bypass valve in an ABS unit that when stuck open causes fluid to bypass the MC until your pedal's nearly at the floor. We could still actuate the ABS by pushing hard...so it seemed it shouldn't be the ABS module but it was. I haven't heard this on a 4Runner...but it's literally the last item on your list to replace. For the Mazda...unfortunately, it was a $1200 part.

 

Ya that’s where I’m at, might warrenty the MC and see what that takes me, but I get a lot of fluid out of each bleeder with no issues . I’ll have to search around for a new and module. Do you know if they have to be programmed or just plug and play and bleed?

 

Full ABS delete is common, I’d pull the relay and disable ABS first to see if it fixes your issue. It should be P&P replace though. Careful to get the right one if it fixes your issue, there are changes over different years IIRC

 

That thread is only for disabling ABS, not deleting it. Deleting it would be to remove it entirely and reroute the brake lines.

If it is something like a stuck bypass valve, pretty sure just disabling it isn't going to unstick it. But probably doesn't hurt to try.

 

Right i didn’t word that clearly, stating mostly for information that one could live without ABS, disabling would be something to try before going full parts cannon. Point taken on it potentially not giving more information however