Brakes mushy feeling after using Motive power bleeder, Need some help

Hey guys a few questions. I bought a new Motive power bleeder for my truck.
Truck is 8 years old and I have never flushed the brake fluid so figured it would be a good time to do it. The bleeders were pretty rusty looking, not under the rubber caps, but just the stems. Anyhow soaked them a day in advance and used Kroil. Next day the bleeders came free very easily. I did abit of reading on the using the Motive and alot of what I read said use it dry. This means not putting fluid in the motive canister but just topping off master cylinder (MC) and depressurizing main motive bottle before adding more. I made sure that I never took the MC below the min mark to be safe. The other thing was I had a syringe to remove fluid prior to starting but I have a MC with a fixed built in strainer that you cant remove. From what ive read some of the 4 runners have this and some dont. For the MC used a nice 43mm adapter which fit fine. Tested it prior to work for leaks and it was good to go at 15 psi (it dropped 1psi after 15mins).
Ok to be on the safe side I took the negative post off the battery prior to starting. Had truck jacked up both ends. I started at the rear passenger side and took out two bottles of fluid to drain as much out of the MC as I could as I couldnt suck it out with the stupid built in strainer. Used Motive catch bottle, the hose seemed a good solid fit during draining. Pressure was fine on the pump gauge and maintained around 15psi the whole time. I basically after each 3/4 bottle removed added more to MC so it never got to low. Did the order of calipers like this
RP, RD, FP, FD
I ended using 4.5 bottles of Toyota Dot 3 so it was a good solid flush. Didnt see any weird leaks on anything when done or before starting. Prior to the flush..the brakes worked great.
After the flush at each corner I retightened bleeders. My torque wrench for reasons unknown didnt like the 8lbs so I did just a reasonable tightening by hand and re put on the rubber caps. I then lowered truck and and topped off MC to max (its fractionally over max but not much). I then reconnected battery and started it up. Had ABS code warning light come on and traction light come on. Then they both went off. Its a 2016 Limited.
I then pumped brake pedal a few times, it seemed to get progressively mushier. I havent road tested truck yet. Driveway test it does stop but feels spongy like theres air in it somewhere.
Any ideas what I missed here? I was pretty thorough on everything, but I must have missed something? Only thing I did not do was put grease on the bleeder threads as some people suggested to stop air coming into threads, but thought with the motive with positive pressure pushing fluid out this was less of a concern than say if you were using a vacuum system to to pull it out instead. I didnt touch the brake pedal at all during removal.
Any ideas? Thanks

 

Have you tried it again with fluid in the motive bottle? (if I'm reading correctly you didn't have any in it?). I've only ever used a motive bleeder with a healthy amount of fresh brake fluid in the bleeder.

 

No i havent tried it with fluid in the bottle, yet, need to buy more DOT3. Have read dozens of posts online where people use it without fluid claiming the pumping causes aeration issues, then again many also run it with fluid. I am going to do it over either way, you think its a bleeder issue or air pocket somewhere? Its got me abit stumped. Ugh..

 

try gravity bleeding to get the rest of the air out

 

Just open the bleeders with no pressure, no pedal action and let it drip?

 

I do one at a time, crack it for a steady drip and leave it anywhere from 30-60 min and just keep an eye on fluid level.

just what I’ve had luck with. I’ve used speciality tools and basic tubing for various results.

 

so hook up the catch can and just crack open the bleeder only a fraction for a drip and not flow right? start usual RP,RD,FP and lastly FD? So are we talking like a 1/16" opening or less? Should I put grease on the bleeder threads as well for any thread air issue? Also for the catch can, you think I should elevate the catch tubing above the bleeder valve so it goes in an arc upwards and then down to the can?

Looks like my holiday monday is getting all planned out..ugh. Thanks for the help on this, appreciate it.

 

It's a week from Monday that's a holiday, the 27th not tomorrow!

 

Up here in Canada land of the not so free and plenty of shit.. the holiday is tomorrow. Everything is closed to so I cant buy anymore fluid. Ive got half a bottle left from yesterday tightly capped.

 

Ahhh, now I see your problem, mine's just about as bad....I have to work 5 Mondays next week!!

 

Really? Around here the usual suspects like Canadian Tire, Lordco, Walmart etc are open Monday.

 

The bleeder tool is a waist of your time. Rear brakes are electronic and do not require a helper. Front you just need a helper to pump brakes while you open and close the bleeder. Do everything with key in on position and obviously top off fluid before it gets too low. Extremely easy without a bleeder.

 

Edit, your right Cambodian Tire is open today..off to get some stuff! Thanks!

 

Any luck with this? I recently changed my pads and rotors and was planning to change the fluid using a Motive bleeder because my fluid is 6 years old. I've used a Motive bleeder a bunch of times on my Nissan 350Z and never had any issue, but now I'm worried about using it on the 4Runner after seeing this thread. I don't understand how air could get in the lines using the Motive. Did you do anything special to get this fixed?

 

Probably have it sorted out by now but I don't know who suggested that horrible idea. As long as you aren't pumping the pedal with the valve open you aren't letting air into the system and the last thing you want is grease coming in contact with your brake fluid.

IMO power bleeding these trucks is a bad strategy. ABS systems are generally ok but ATRAC means these aren't standard systems. When I turned wrenches for Toyota, we always manually flushed anything with ATRAC and anything that was power bled got 1-2 manually at each corner to finish.

 

Agreed, i went back to the simple as per the manual using pedal pumps for the fronts and running the onboard pump for the rear. Drained off maybe 600ml or so. No issues been ok for about 2 weeks so far. Next up Discs and Pads.. the pedal after the fluid flush is ok, but needs new discs to firm it up abit.