My 2000 Tacoma has been sitting for about 18 months while I was finding time and money to get the engine rebuilt (hydro-locked at 260,000 miles). Now the engine is back in and I've been on my first day of test driving.

It's running great, needs a few small tweaks, but the brakes seem to be 'hard'. By that I mean I have to push he pedal pretty hard to stop the truck. It doesn't go down very far but requires much more force than I think it should.

Question is, can this be caused by the truck sitting for over a year? What other likely culprits are there?

 

I think your just not used to the feel of the brakes.

After not driving it for so long.

My Tacoma and 4Runner the brakes pedal feels different.

Every thing is working like it should just different .

What are you comparing it with.

Forget to run the vacuum line to the intake ??

Have it hooked up wrong??

Mud wasp nest in the vacuum line to brake booster??

 

I do not think my girlfriend could stop the truck at all...

I'm comparing it with my F-250 carrying a 7.3L diesel.

I will check the vacuum lines. Thanks for the suggestions

 

Rotors and drums tend to get MIGHTY rusty sitting for that long. First thing I'd look at would be the rotors. See if you've even broken through to fresh metal yet.

 

I glanced at the rotors through the wheel yesterday. While not shiny, they didn't strike me as being rusty.
We get only about 6" of rain per year here so rust isn't something I think about much

Hoping this will clear up with more use of the brakes.

 

I have seen the pistons freeze inside the caliper on previous generations when sitting for long periods of time. The pistons will rust to the caliper. From now on when I work on a truck, I just replace the complete assembly, calipers, brake pads, and sometimes rotors. My truck the pads had created a rust pocket in the rotors and when you hit the brakes, it would pulsate as the pad went into the pocket. It was $20 to have them turned or $25 for new rotors. On my 01 runner I think I had about $150 into disc, pads, and something else if I recall right. A trucks condition will go down hill fast just sitting.

While looking up some other information, I came across a picture of where a piston rusted inside the caliper. Not sure what your calipers look like but am sure it is a similar setup.

 

Well I now can agree It seems for some reason your booster is not working .

At least from the way you describe this.

Most times a few stops clean up the rust.

Could be a Mud wasp nest in the brake booster .

 

Sounds you have not hooked up the large diameter line (with checkvalve) to the brake booster.

 

Yep. I pulled off the booster hose and could not blow air through it by mouth. Cleared it with the air hose and 'something' shot out. Also, the hose nipple on the master cylinder was clogged with something that looked like dried wax. I tried breaking it up with a small drill bit then vacuumed it out.

After installing the hose, I only had time to drive around the block. The brakes were definitely better but I may need to clean it a little better to get optimal operation.

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments

 

The problem keeps coming back
I've cleared the vacuum line more than twice and used a cable tie to clean out the hose nipple on the master cylinder. It is always a temporary fix. Soon the break pedal becomes very difficult to use.

Is there a way to safely clean the hose nipple on the master cylinder?
If I sprayed break cleaner in there might that solve my problem or create a much bigger one?

 

It's been a long time, but not so many miles, and I'm still having this brake issue. I've now determined that the brakes work much better when I've been driving and press the pedal for the first time. Second time, not so much

I did replace 4 vacuum hoses that were pretty worn. One had a visible hole when I flexed it. Problem still exists.

 

When is the last time that you properly flushed the brake circuits?




Andreas

 

We did a pretty good flush after putting the new engine in.
Drove about 100 miles today and, just as I described earlier, brakes work great on the first push. Release that and push again and much more force is required.

 

have you checked on where the vacuum line connects to the engine? if yes, and there's no problem, then probably the problem is with the brake booster.