Ah! Thanks. I think that’s not my problem. My pedal sinks kind of slowly. I think that with the loose bearing you’d have a more straight-to-the-floor action as the pedal moves further to push the piston across the gap.
Did you take the vehicle to a shop for repair ? If so post back what they found and what they did. That will do more good than a lot of guessing.
Shop scheduled for August 10. I’ll post the results.
davesmopar – Thanks. That’s what I thought “bypassing” meant.
A brake master cylinder can also leak into the vacuum booster
Again . . . no visible external leak
Great point!!..
Key word being visible, but an external leak is still an external leak rather it is seen or not… 
The car went into the shop on Monday. I described the “soft pedal” symptoms, and I also mentioned that the squeal from rear brakes was becoming worse than annoying.
For the rear brakes, the mechanic said that replacing all the parts would run $500 or $600. He suggested that we try just cleaning the brakes. You bet!
He cleaned and adjusted the rear brakes and the parking brake. The squeal is gone (for now) and the pedal feels better – shorter throw, and sharper “grab”. The mechanic says everything is OK.
I’m going to trust him. He guided me away from trying to replace parts to fix the rear brake squeal, and he did not sell me any service for the pedal feel.
Thanks for your advice.
(I think the rear brakes are supposed to have self-adjusters (I’ll be checking my Chilton’s), but I also think that those things are notorious for not working very well.)
Unless Toyota came up with different self adjuster, generally to get the self adjuster to work, in my experience required hitting the brakes hard when in reverse. By “cleaning the brakes”, what did he do? Wipe down the drums, spray with brake clean?
That your mechanic chose to ignore the sinking pedal bothers me. Adjusting the brakes will not cure a sinking pedal.
Purebred,
“hitting the brakes hard when in reverse” – That’s what I think, too. And it never happens naturally, so maybe I’ll have to remember to do it now and then. Nonetheless, they have never worked like they should on any of the rear-wheel-drums cars I have owned.
“what did he do?” – I didn’t ask, but probably like what you described.
“mechanic chose to ignore the sinking pedal bothers me” – Me too. that’s why I explained why I trusted him… so far. It takes a LOT of pressure on the pedal, and it sinks slowly; 10 or 15 seconds to reach max travel. And when I let it pop back up it acts the same way the second time. I’m going to keep an eye on it and maybe look for another 2004 Camry to try out. There are several in the neighborhood. And maybe talk to the mechanic about it again.
You need a real brake shop.
I gotta stop hoping my troubles away – either go to another mechanic (whom can I trust???) or find out why my trusted guy thinks no more fix is needed. We/I have moved past the mechanical to the psychological, and you guys don’t get paid enough for that 
.
Wild guess . . .
Brake master
Wouldn’t be unusual on a 22-year old car
I think that’s what everybody here (including myself) is guessing. Question: Why do we not think wheel cylinder or caliper (or maybe a brake line)? Because if they were letting the pedal sink, then I’d be losing fluid (and have it all over the driveway and maybe getting on the brake shoe/pad and making that brake grabby?? (I think I had something like that on my '84 Chevy wagon, but it was a leaking axle seal.)
Is that with the engine running?
Tester
Yes. I think I have not tried it with the engine off. I will, in a few minutes, if that info would be helpful.
Don’t guess, test…
With a helper;
Clamp off all (3 or 4) the brake hoses (all 4 wheels), how does the pedal feel?? It should only move about 1/2" to maybe an inch, then not move anymore period…
If the pedal has little to no movement then unclamp one hose at a time (order does not matter) the pedal should only drop a little, 1/2" to maybe an inch, if firm then reclamp and move to the next wheel, do this for all brake hoses, if one drops very low, then your issue is at that wheel and below the hose being clamped off…
I did some experimenting.
Engine idling:
- Pedal goes to bottom, faster than I remembered (but not straightaway; there is significant resistance when the brakes engage).
- “Pumping” the brake does NOT reduce the softness.
- With each downward stroke, there is a whooshing/hissing sound.
Engine off:
- The brake pedal is much firmer and seems to have shorter travel before stopping.
- Pumping the brake might be making the pedal feel firmer.
- No whooshing/hissing sound.
- (Except if the engine was running and then turned off just before pressing the brake pedal, on the first stroke of the pedal it is a bit soft and there is a short whoosh/hiss.)
“Don’t guess, test…” I should have said “using our knowledge and experience to predict what we will find when we test”.
Thanks for the detailed instructions. Sounds like a job I’d pass along to a mechanic. Even if I identified a defective brake cylinder or line, I could not DIY fix it.
Thanks, again, for everybody’s help. I’ll be going offline for a day or two. (And that might be sooner than I had planned. We have a fierce thunderstorm rolling in. We just had a two- or three second power glitch. My computer sort-of restarted, but the wife’s did not. And the house A/C compressor unit sounds weird.)