My wife’s 2005 Toyota Corolla has had a very specific issue happen twice, and I’m hoping someone has some ideas.
With the engine cold, she turns the key and it starts just fine. She shifts into reverse, and there’s no strange sound from the transmission. However, as soon as she backs out she realizes that there are two problems:
- The brake pedal goes straight to the floor without slowing down the car.
- The power steering is not working.
Both times, she’s been able to use the parking brake to come to a stop. Both times, turning off the engine and turning it on again has made the brakes and power steering come back online.
I’ve done a lot of work on vehicles in the past, but this series of problems has me stumped. Any thoughts?
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This car is equipped with an electronic braking system? If so sounds similar to some issues I had with my 06’ Benz. In my case no effects on power steering (no shared connections) but it was absolutely an electronic failure of the SBC (same basic system Toyota used around that time).
No it doesn’t. It has regular abs and stability control system where pedal going to the floor isn’t possible without a leak.
Flip side. Only a very specific few things could cause 1/2 of this like you described. Massively warped/bent rotor(s) is one (brakes only) pushing pads back into calipers causing multiple pedal presses to regain contact. Wife would have complained of other issues first.
Close up pic of abs module/brake controller if possible? I’m only giving advice based on MY previous experience. If the issues feel digital (1’s & 0’s/on-off) then it’s probably electronic related.
- The brake pedal goes straight to the floor without slowing down the car.
This really wouldn’t be possible without multiple failures at the same time. So all I can think is that something happens that makes the driver think this is what happens. That really makes this diagnosing hard.