danielnas

Hi,

couple of days ago I was driving too hard with my 2008 lexus ES350 so I had to brake a lot until I noticed my brakes are acting weird. the pedal was spongy so I pulled over and let the brakes to cool off I also pumped the brakes a few times to build some pressure. fast forward the next day the car brakes good but the pedal still feel a little spongy not as bad as yesterday but its not solid as it should be. I thought maybe I broke some brake lines so I checked all the lines and calipers and no sign of brake fluid. my second guess was the brake master cylinder but I thought it will be better to bleed the brakes first to see if I can fix the issue. the brake pedal feel was never 100% right on my car. checked the fluid color and it had a yellowish color so I thought its time to bleed the brakes. I did a lot of research but there is no clear explanation on this for Toyota or Lexus cars.
my assumption is in order to do a complete brake flush I need to use Techstream software otherwise I wont be able to push all the air from the abs system. has anyone ever did that on a ES350? I am using a hacked version of techstream ver 13.0.0.22 with a cable that i bought off ebay. could it cause any issue? I appreciate any input that can help me doing this myself.

ESh

I did brake fluid replacement twice on my ES350. Once by pumping the brake pedal and once with Techstream.
I think it is better without Techstream.

danielnas

but I heard you won't be able to bleed the air from the ABS module if you don't use techstream?

ESh

That’s not true.

Clutchless

I prefer to use the Mighty Vac vacuum bleeder rather than the pump the pedal method. Faster, safer and you do not need an assistant. The instructions state leave the ignition in the accessory on position to bleed the ABS. Not sure if that is true, but I do it anyway. Sometimes you just have to go around and bleed the car 3 or 4 times to get all the air out.

https://www.grainger.com/product/1XG...!438966557465!

Riick

I just replaced all my brake fluid yesterday, using the exotic 1-man bleeder method
(( 3 feet of 1/4" clear vinyl tubing + old soda bottle + quart of DOT3 brake fluid ))
I read up on using Techstream, since I have a laptop I've dedicated to Techstream, but decided that since it required two people, and was very fussy, I'd avoid it. If you bleed the brakes, and/or change out the brake fluid, the new fluid MUST go through the ABS system. There are no side roads between the Master cylinder and the caliper pistons. Yes, the ABS pump will push out air bubbles, but it won't do it any better than the master cylinder will, and both are sitting up there, much higher than the caliper pistons.

Easy job, but I was absolutely amazed at how contaminated the fluid coming out of the brake lines looked.

That's brake fluid in the bottle, not Coca-Cola