Safety/IM failed, Deceleration Too High

[audiofreak97]

Truck: 1997 Tacoma, V6, 4x4.

I'm trying to get my Tacoma back on the road after a couple years on down time due to engine mechanical problems, and I'm in need of some guidance on braking.
I took the truck to Jiffy Lube (Magna) to get the inspection done and they say they tried 4 times with the same result.
Printout shows a little front bias, and right front/rear, but stopping forces off the charts... (I've attached the printout)

The brakes don't lock up on the road, a nice loooong stop when the pedal is to the floor. I'm going to bleed the brakes, turn the front rotors, replace the front pads, the brake shoes were replaced before it went into hibernation.

Anyone have any suggestions on what else I should look at?

I would love to get the truck back on the road, it's been too long since it's seen dirt and I need some good 4x4 therapy.

 

[Kevin B.]

I don't know about the brakes, but the Magna Jiffy Lube sucks goat butt.

I think your plan to just refresh the entire smear is good, but I'd take it somewhere else to get retested.

 

[audiofreak97]

I agree with you on that. Retest has to be done at the original test sight as far as I know or I would. I was hoping for an in and out test since I've finally got the engine running good again...

 

[Jesser04]

I think you can go anywhere you want to get it retested it just free within 2 weeks if you go back to them.

 

[sixstringsteve]

So they're saying your brakes are too powerful and likely to lock up? Or are they saying the brakes are too weak?

 

[Toad]

All jiffy lubes use a Brake Plate tester. All it does is measure the amount of force applied to each wheel. It does not give any actual condition of the brake linings. Basically they are to stupid to pull the wheels and visually check so they do the brake plate test. My advise would be wait 15 days for the reject slip to be cleared from the SI data base. After that take it somewhere that does a visual test. Once it fails on a brake plate it has to pass on a brake plate. Thats why you need to wait.

 

[ricsrx]

Back in the 80's when the brake plate first came out i thought they were cool untill i stoped into a shop to do my inspection and they had a brake plate, a cherroke owner was complaing that after they had failed him on the brake test he took his rig the dealer for the repair and they could not find a brake problem, he had the receipt and statment from the dealer stating that there were no brake problems. the shop said sorry it has failed and you need to do somthing to it to get it to pass our brake check equipment.
I jumped back in my jeep and headed for another inspection staition, without the brake plate....

 

[Toad]

exactly brake plates suck

 

[rockdog]

They do the same thing at the one in Lindon. It's the most unfair and unrealistic way to check brakes I've ever seen. I've heard the same story of not being able to find anything to fix many times. Including one family member who wheels with us and wrenches on all his own stuff. They pulled that sh!t on him and his whole jeep brake system was rebuilt. He asked them what the hell he was supposed to do to fix it. They couldn't tell him. They just said take it to a brake shop and have them BALANCE his brakes! I'm not kidding! Balance his brakes. Regular brain surgeons they are!

 

[clfrnacwby]

Never, ever...ever take a rig to Jiffy Lube for a Safety check...or anything else for that matter. When I first moved to Utah, I took my 85 4Runner to Jiffy Lube in Lindon. After many, many failed attempts to pass the Safety check and dumping hundreds of dollars into the brakes (yeah, notice a pattern here?), I decided to sell it. The guy who bought it, immediately took it somewhere else and it passed with flying colors. I felt like an idiot.

 

[RNandKT]

I just did my Jeep (and might I jump on that Jiffy Lube sucks for inspections and emissions bandwagon, I seem to have much better time at the emissions and inspection only places since they don't do repairs), and my Jeep failed the brake plate test. They said the rear brakes need to be balanced (drums). I have heard this before, it usually is just a case of adjusting the drum brake expander correctly (found out from a brake shop that often problem with new rear brakes, because it takes forever for the self adjusting expander to get adjusted out correctly, they told me when replacing drum brakes to just keep turning it out 1/4 turns until when you put the drum back on you feel just a little resistance when spinning it, works like a charm normally BTW).

Anyway technically you can request they pull a wheel front and rear instead and measure brake pad thickness. If you have them do that and they are acceptable it passes. I believe you have to do this on the first test though, not sure if you can request that after they have done the plate test. But something for the future.

Funny thing in my case I failed for being unbalanced in the rear (among the other stupid little things, all of which they offered services to fix of course) and I grumbled and set off home to re-balance them. In my case I felt kinda lucky, turned out even though they had tons of pad, one of the pads had separated from the shoe and slid down. Luckily it was still wedged protecting my drum from grinding, but their brake test was actually what caught it. So normally I hate it, but felt kinda lucky this time. In your case it sounds like their machine was out of calibration (especially if they did it multiple times) or the tech running it was a noobie.

 

[audiofreak97]

Took the truck back in to get tested and it passed the brake test. Replaced the front pads and pins, bled the brakes and that LSPV and everything was near perfect with the exception of the right front, 25% pull right at legal limit. Need to address that issue later, but seems bleeding the system was likely the solution...

Thanks all for the insight and help.