Toyota Brake Pedals

[RobM77]

My girlfriend's just bought a Yaris and the brake pedal has two inches of slack at the top, and then somewhere in that slack is a very harsh biting point. The result is that it's really hard to brake progressively as you've no idea when your right foot is going to come across the biting point. The reason for me posting is that the Toyota engined Elises do exactly the same thing, so I guess it's a Toyota thing. Is there an easy fix? My girlfriend's learning to drive and is finding it very tricky to brake gently and properly.

any ideas?

[OlberJ]

Sounds strange, my sisters T-sport Yaris doesn't do that. It's a bit on/off yes but you just gotta be gentle with it.

Is it impossible to brake progressively or just hard to do it?

[RobM77]

OlberJ said:

Sounds strange, my sisters T-sport Yaris doesn't do that. It's a bit on/off yes but you just gotta be gentle with it.

Is it impossible to brake progressively or just hard to do it?

Just hard. It's really hard to know where the biting point is - it just appears out of nowhere!

[chrisk]

Brake Fluid change? Air Lock? I might be talking crap but it doesn't sound right!

[RobM77]

Can anyone else out there with a Yaris comment on this? My girlfriend's car is a 57 reg. Given that the early Toyota engined Elises do it I had just assumed it was a Toyota thing.

[saltyhair81]

I would bleed the brakes. Sounds like there could be a small amount of air in the system!

[RobM77]

saltyhair81 said:

I would bleed the brakes. Sounds like there could be a small amount of air in the system!

It's not even two years old yet, and bought from a Toyota dealer. I'll be a bit annoyed if there is air in the system! I need to pop over to my parents' sometime soon, so I'll bleed them with my Dad and report back.

[dougc]

I had a new shape Yaris as a courtesy car when my old one was in for service and noticed this too. I put it down to the thing only having 50 miles on it and the brakes weren't properly bedded in yet. Is there any chance that the pads and/or discs have been replaced recently?

[streaky]

Wait for letter from DVLA re recall, or better still ... take it to local Toyota dealer ASAP - Streaky

[RobM77]

streaky said:

Wait for letter from DVLA re recall, or better still ... take it to local Toyota dealer ASAP - Streaky

will do.

Shame they can't modify the accelerator pedal whilst they're at it. The pedal is so light that it takes hardly any of the weight of my foot whilst I'm driving, and it gives me nasty leg pains on the motorway because of it. All it needs is a stronger spring. I'm tempted to do it myself with an elastic band or something!

[RobM77]

I've just spoken to Toyota and the brake pedal is normal - they all do it.

[Twincharged]

My ST205 GT-Four has a similar feel, and I did bleed the brakes just to be sure but it made no difference.

[RobM77]

Twincharged said:

My ST205 GT-Four has a similar feel, and I did bleed the brakes just to be sure but it made no difference.

I don't remember it on my ST185 Sainz or my mk1 MR2, so it must be a recent thing. Lotuses do it as well, in fact they probably lost a lot of sales because of it. On the Toyota engined Elise is took the brake too low to heel and toe properly, so I bought the Rover engined 111S instead, pretty much entirely because of this issue.