2015 Corolla with 7k miles has “soft brakes”

[mattd]

Originally Posted by supton
I don't see what the drum brakes have to do with this. I don't think this vintage is applying the rear drums first to prevent nose dive...? I know that is done on some cars but I thought it was only on setups with ABS and rear discs--I could be wrong though--but most rear drum brakes tend to go to the scrap yard with original shoes and that makes me think they don't do this, that the rear shoes are applied very lightly most of the time.


Drum brakes out of adjustment will give a "low" pedal due to the amount of travel the wheel cylinder has to make up for. Toyota drum brakes actually do require service. Especially on the smaller cars. The days of going to the junkyard with original shoes are long gone.

 

[wag123]

At 5 years old, and living in a hot/humid climate like NO LA, it is time to have the brake fluid flushed/changed. Part of this service is bleeding the brakes. That should take care of the soft pedal. If there is too much pedal travel and the car has rear drum brakes (L and LE models), the shoes may need to be adjusted (the car has self adjusting shoes, but the parking brake must be used regularly to operate the adjuster mechanism).