daredeil95

Hi, I've owned my 05 ES330 for about 3 months now and all is good. The car has 67K miles on it and I replaced the brakes about 600 miles ago with ceramic pads. This car has always had a soft brake pedal and the brake pedal goes down to far in my opinion to apply the brakes but, the brakes stop/hold the car good so, my question is: is it normal on the ES330's to have a soft brake pedal that has a lot of downward travel or is this something I should look into? Kinda feels as if the brakes need to be bled and this condition existed with the car since I bought it. All my other cars have a high firm brake pedal and it feels odd when applying the lexus brakes. Thanks

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

Bleed it and make sure all the pins are sliding freely

Oro

A good, easy check for this is after a drive, walk around and place your hand on each wheel hub. A sticking caliper will be much hotter than the others and unpleasant to touch the wheel center. L2K and others have experienced this on these cars as the pin hats seem to be inadequate. I haven't experienced on this car personally (I live in a mild climate/no salted roads), but have on other vehicles. Even if not sticking, when doing brakes, strip and clean the pins and make sure the hats are intact and not torn. Lube with this (and the pad backs, and your window and door seals, hoses, etc. - valuable stuff):

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7651346

It is available at most auto stores in different labeling.

Bleed them down per standard procedure you can google. A good idea is to siphon out as much of the reservoir before hand, then introduce new fluid before beginning. Then you will pull mostly clean fluid through the system to start and speed the procedure. With ceramic pads, the system should feel like pretty standard "quality" car standards - good braking, no excessive pedal travel, no excessive fade with hard use.

wmj259

Seconded, I just changed my pads, and to get the pins out the rubber hats, they are fragile. Need to get new ones for myself.

daredeil95

Thanks, I'll pull some wheels off this weekend and poke around the brake system. I have the Lexus service history and the brake fluid was changed about 15,000 miles ago so, no fluid issue. So, I'm assuming the brake pedal should be firm and not soft. Thanks for the info.

Oro

ArmyofOne

Honestly, the braking in the 4ES is not the best. My pedal has been mushy since day one and i have changed the fluid multiple times.

daredeil95

Yes, Mushy was the word I was looking for! the ES330 brakes remind me of a Mustang's brakes, the brakes stop the car ok but, feels mushy and lacks confidence.....hopefully i find a problem this weekend, I want there to be a problem so, the brakes feel confident?