Hi,
I took my Toyota Tacoma (220,000 miles) in to Brake Masters get the oil changed as well as the fluid in the front & rear differential and transfer case. I also had the tires rotated. And they also did a 20-point inspection and topped off the fluids as needed. Now my brakes are spongy. I have to press them down much further than I used to in order to stop my truck. If I pump them, they seem to work better, but I worry if I need to stop fast, I won’t be able to do so.
I called the service shop that worked on it two days ago and they claimed they didn’t do anything that would affect the brakes. They suggested I bring it in and they would check it out.
Any ideas what they could have done to affect the brakes? Or is this just a strange coincidence?
Assuming they didn’t break something to get you to have to pay them more money, it’s fairly unlikely. It’s remotely possible they damaged a brake line while rotating the tires, but they’d have to be pretty incompetent to pull that off.
I never quite figured out what happened, but I took it to the other shop, they bled and adjusted the brakes. Now they work great. They said one brake need an extreme amount of adjusting though.
The first shop probably backed off the adjuster on one of the rear drums, in order to remove the drum as part of their “20 pt” inspection. Point 19 of 20 of that inspection should have been to re-install the drum and adjust the shoes back to their original position. Point 20 is “don’t forget to put the wheel back along with most or all of the lug nuts”. I suggest finding a good Indy mechanic and build a professional relationship with a skilled mechanic that you can trust. Chain shops and quick lubes are often not going to give you the best service; some might be OK, but a real independent who lives and dies by reputation and word of mouth is the way to go.