I bought my 2003 Lexus LS430 from my brother about five years ago. It has always bothered me that the brakes feel soft and go further towards the floor than I would like, but the mechanic at the place that specializes in Lexus and a few other expensive cars said they were okay. I can't ask my brother his opinion, as only his wife drove the car and she has passed away.

Of course, if the brakes were actually bad I would have had an accident by now. But they make me nervous.

I wrote this off as due to my having driven a car with no power brakes for decades (1969 Mustang.)

But this week I drove a rental car for several days and didn't even think about the brakes. Then I got into my Lexus with its soft near the floor brakes and the little voice in my head said The brakes are failing.

So it isn't a power brakes no power brakes thing.

Is this something a mechanic can adjust? I asked them when I brought it in for this problem originally, but either they said no or I forgot to follow up. I mostly cared that the brakes weren't dangerous. They are annoying, though.

Thanks.

 

Several things can attribute to this, a bad master cylinder, seized pistons in the calipers, ****ty pads, ****ty rotors, dirty fluids. I mean best thing to do is get your brakes replaced, and if there was a sticky piston you'd know it. Also flush the fluid completely and make sure there's no air in there. My brakes feel good, I own BMWs and Benz with huge brakes and the LS brakes are not too far behind.

 

I worry that the ABS unit has some trapped air inside. This needs to use the Techstream to bleed as is posted here.

 

I agree with Yamae, start with a full bleed using Techstream, its very likely that will solve the problem

 

My 2001 LS430UL brand new was and still is that way. Was told by everybody that it was normal. I have also changed and bled brakes several times.

 

This seems to be a pretty touchy braking system as far as bleeding the air out goes. I did a brake system flush and accidentally introduced some air into the system when I ran the reservoir dry, and I had no luck getting it out with the usual methods. Had a local Toyota/Lexus specialist do the tech stream bleed and all was back to normal afterwards.

You may try a second opinion, as some shops seems to say "meh, it's good enough" and send you on your way. My dad was having a bunch of fabrication work done on his old 78 Landcruiser, and after he got it back, the brake pedal would sink to the floor slowly due to a bad master cylinder. I pointed it out the next time he brought it back and they argued with me till they were blue in the face that it wasn't an issue. Ended up ordering a new master cylinder and just replaced it myself.