Did you change rear calipers too?
How low did the reservoir get when bleeding? If fluid got too low at any time air may have gotten into the master cyl?
How were your brakes before the upgrade?
Definitely sounds like air to me...

 

- No, I have the OEM rear calipers on currently but I did replace the pads.
- The reservoir didn’t get below min but I’m 99% sure on that one. I did the job solo so it could of sneaked below the min line.
- My brakes are about the same since I replace the brake lines to the SS ones.
To be honest I’m really not confident in my brake bleeding procedure. It may have worked for me in the past with older cars but I have a feeling it’s a little different with my FJ.

 

Going a little below min on the reservoir is fine. Sounds like the air is probably in one or both of the fronts. The rears on my 07 are easy to bleed. I just used tubing to attach to the bleeders ran it to a bottle, opened the bleeders and turned the key on for 30 secs or so at a time. The pump bleeds the rears for you. I just watched the reservoir and took out around 20 oz each side. the fronts I did one at a time after replacing the calipers. The pump won't bleed the fronts so I just left the bleeder open and let gravity do most of the work. Once the air appeared to be out I bolted it all up and got a helper and did the old school pump and hold. There was only a little air left after gravity bleed. If you had a bad booster or such I think it would've been apparent before the brake job and air should not have made it into your system if fluid never went below or even a little below min.

I would try bleeding the fronts again.

 

I was thinking the same thing. There must be a little bit of air in the front calipers. When I did my first bleed after the brake job there was continuous air bubbles and it appeared that there was no end in sight. It took me 15 minutes on each caliper to feel some what confident that the air was gone. I proceeded to the rear and that took me all of 30 seconds per caliper. I went for a test run and the brake pedal still soft so I bleed the front again. There was still air coming from the front calipers! Once again I felt confident that the air was gone so I went on another test run and the brakes felt more responsive but not where I would like them to be. This is when I did all the other things to try to trouble shoot the problem. I’m think of getting a brake bleeder kit so I don’t have to mess with this again. Any recommendations?

 

Does sound like a better bleed is needed.

I dont see how you can bleed the front brakes yourself without an air-bleeder? Need someone to man the pedal and one on the wrench. And even though the rears "bleed themselves" still need the two people.

I also may have missed it, but did you bed them PROPERLY? Even bedded right, they might suck for a few many miles until they wear in slightly

 

I had my wife work the pedal for the front and I used a metal pole and a block of wood to press down the pedal for the rear (yes I know it’s not ideal). Idk, it sounds like I need to do a better bleed.
By bedding do you mean braking in the rotors and pads? If so, yes I followed Stop Techs guide to breaking in my rotors.

 

Spend the $30 and buy a MightyVac to do the bleed properly. It'll pull a vacuum on the caliper and easily remove any air that's left inside. Gravity bleeding the caliper is always going to leave some air inside.

-B

 

Spend the $30 and buy a MightyVac to do the bleed properly. It'll pull a vacuum on the caliper and easily remove any air that's left inside. Gravity bleeding the caliper is always going to leave some air inside. -B

If you're going to spend a little $$ to get a tool for effective brake bleeding, get a pressure bleeder instead. I have both a Mighty Vac and a pressure bleeder, and the pressure bleeder is superior in every way and only costs slightly more.

A pressure bleeder allows one-man bleeding, will never allow you to draw air into the system by accidentally allowing the fluid level in the reservoir to drop too low, and just seems to do a better job of removing ALL residual air.

There are elaborate motorized professional pressure bleeders costing $1K, but the $50 hand-pumped versions work fine for me.