This complaint deals with all Toyota cars with rear wheel drum brakes. On my car and many others possibly the pedal is soft has to go down quite a ways to activate brakes. On several occasions although I drive conservatively I feel my braking was compromised when I need quick braking response. I believe the reason is the automatic adjustment mechanism on my rear brakes was and is not working. This mechanism on all modern cars with rear drum brakes adjusts for wear by bringing the brake shoes closer to the drum when backing and braking. An automatic adjustment. When the mechanism isn't working the rear brake shoes get farther and farther from the drum due to wear and one must push the brake pedal farther and farther down on braking to get the shoes to contact the drums before braking can begin. This delays the braking time of the driver considerably. Recently getting new tires the mechanic noted my soft brake pedal and removed the rear brake drums and manually adjusted the shoes to bring them in light contact with the drum. My brake pedal got hard again and activated at the top. Toyota should bring the cars in to check this lack of adjustment problem as I wouldn't doubt there have been accidents because of it. With the new cars with disk brakes the pads are always against the disk and the is no soft pedal problem.

- Stuart, FL, USA