Step on the FJ's brake pedal and there's a quarter inch of nothing (which is about normal) and then there's nonlinear, overly abrupt response. Try and back out a hair and the braking goes away just as abruptly. Then you get back on the pedal, and... you get the point...
I can only imagine what it looks like from another driver's perspective--the FJ's bouncing up and down probably makes me look like I'm driving on a learner's permit.
Compounding this is that the pedal effort during all of this remains the same--if the response is going to be nonlinear, I'd like the effort to follow suit. At least then the braking force will be proportional to how hard I'm pressing the pedal.
The FJ's brakes have always been this way, too, at least to me. I did a quick scan of previous FJ blogs and if anyone's commented on it, it's been a while. Time to close the loop on this.
On the plus side, the FJ has been holding up over its 27k mile life very well--it still drives and sounds like new.
Engineering Editor Jason Kavanagh
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