Brake question stability control and abs

phalanax, Aug 30, 12:16pm
Drove a car today the brake pedal doesnt seem firm. seems spongy then gets firm. pedal not high and sensitive (like im used to) put your foot on brake pedal drops (spongy like) near 2cm before the brake system starts doing its bit (gets firm). driving it seems ok just the pedal seems to have movement before activating (seems low). stop the vehicle and apply hard (very firm not stomping hard) pressure to the pedal and the stability control warning lights up and sounds after about 2 seconds of holding pedal down as far as it will go (car not moving). this car has hill assist as well. pull handbrake (while stopped and pedal travel is reduced (about where it should be). Is this normal ,Im new to cars with stability control and hill assist braking. The stability control light and buzzer goes away if you take your foot off the pedal. This warning light and buzzer only activates if you are stationary and hold your foot down on the brake pedal hard for about 2 seconds. Brake fluid seems normal. abs seems to be working. stability working when you drive (can feel it on the steering wheel). brake pads still have decent amount of pad on them. could there be air in the lines? It doesnt happen if you are stopped and have just normal foot pedal pressure on the brakes. only when stationary and with very firm brake pedal pressure. Thoughts.

phalanax, Aug 30, 12:36pm
Car also has an abs light. this isnt lighting up.Only the stability control light when stopped and very firmly holding brake pedal down. Abs is working. can feel it doing its thing. brake normally and hold the pedal down normal when stopped and the stability control doesnt light up . only when you hold pedal down very firmly, only when stopped. Could this be the stability control on/ off. activation method? It only does this when the vehicle is stationary (not moving) .

skull, Aug 30, 8:13pm
Why does the make and model need to be a secret? Did you not look at the badges as you hopped into it?

tamarillo, Aug 30, 8:29pm
No it's not normal. Any recent vehicle should have firm brake pedal.

franc123, Aug 30, 10:05pm
Its not uncommon for ABS/ESC vehicles to have more pedal travel than you would expect when being statically pumped, having warning lamps and buzzers operating while doing it seems strange though. You shouldn't 'feel' ESC working unless you are doing something extreme on the road. I would be getting an agent for that makes opinion on it to be safe and maybe a scan of the system to see if a malfunction has been logged, be it current or historic. What is the vehicle?

monaro17, Aug 30, 10:23pm
Pedal feel is different from car to car. You cannot expect them all to feel the same. Many new cars still have a spongy initial feel to the brake pedal. It is a manufacturers choice not a defective product

frytime, Aug 30, 11:15pm
Holding pedal firm when stopped will engage hill start assist (if equiped). Stop on a hill, and hold pedal until light comes on. Take foot off brake. Car should hold itself for about 5 seconds, then release the brakes or until you start trying to move. Hope it helps. If pulling hand brake decreases pedal travel your rear brakes probably need adjusting

intrade, Aug 31, 1:32am
depends on make and model etc, could be as simple as a wrongly adjusted or malfunctioning brake pedal switch.
i know of a older women who purchased noumerous new citroens all but one had severe problems from brand new similar to what you discribe
the thing would not brake till you pushed harder still nothing and then a bit more wham it slammed the brakes on. you had to learn to push it to this position and then carfully press a bit more or it would fling you at the windscreen if you had no seatbelt on.
the morons whom sold it try to tell my dad its rust on the brakes . at this time i had not learned any of this electronic crap
Now i know what most likely the problem was as my scanntool has relearn position of brake pedal switch as part of its oem capable bidirectional functions for loads of car makes and i did see it on special function on citroen software when i scrolled thru the citroen one .
so it would have been real simple to fix but not if your friggen morons like this main citroen dealer in switzerand is. its mindblowing almost anyone has no clue what so ever they all just work with flowcharts and if its not on the flowchart the fix they blame the driver or say nothing is wrong

phalanax, Aug 31, 2:44am
Vehicle is a 2009 es350 Lexus. no owners handbook. yep have decided to get the local agents workshop to run diagnostics on it. Ive found what happens with brakes sometimes is . someone changes the pads and they force the caliper back . then pump the pedal to try and get the pedal high. because they dont like bleeding due to the effect it has on some abs systems. anyway will get the local agents to look at it. personally I think it needs a bleed furtherest to closest.

intrade, Aug 31, 3:00am
lexus you need snapon scanner or j25-34 pass thru programming tool with toyota oem software swubscription or possible the tis-techstream
the techstream pirate versions on tradme are low grade j25-34

phalanax, Aug 31, 3:02am
Yep its off to the local Toyota agency this week. Dont want to mess with it. its the wifes car. Im not a fan of bells and whistles. lol. Dont mind cars with onboard realtime scrolling visual display scanning. but even then bells and whistles can often be 'ghosts in the machine'. lol. Just decided to drive her car (very rare event) to the supermarket and noticed it. might be a good thing I did.

intrade, Aug 31, 3:30am
its a usa car my toyota software wont do lexus lexus are listed under usa software. so i dont know if the agents even have the us lexus software loaded on there techstream or not if they dont it will just say no codes even if they are codes.
and codes are symptoms not parts to replace, make sure you get the codes from a oem lexus scanner in your hand because if they whipe them then they wont come back and make it even more of a nightmare to figure out what the real cause is.

phalanax, Aug 31, 3:34am
Ok. Hey might be an idea if a few folk took the missus (or other family members) car for a drive every now and then. they could be driving an accident waiting to happen. lol

phalanax, Aug 16, 6:18pm
Models an is350. not es. hmm ive been looking on the net some models (not this one) have had problems with a mastercylinder seal cracking 2007-2012 these are us or jap models;others a problem with the brake pressure accumulator. anyway. will let the toyota folk sort it.