We've experienced 5 intermittent brake failures where the pedal goes to the floor. The first time was last summer 2023 and I was driving on the highway and the brake pedal went to the floor and I pumped the brake and it seemed to work itself out. The second time was about two months later again it happened again; we took the car to the dealer in MA and they couldn't see any problems; three months later again on a highway as I was exiting it happened again. I pumped the brake and it seemed OK but I took it to another Toyota dealer in NJ and they ran some diagnostics and couldn't find anything wrong; the car was fine all winter.

Last month we were about to get onto a highway and I lost the brakes completely- luckily we were able to go back home and had the car towed to our local FL dealer and they replaced the calipers, brake lines, rotors, and brake pads and said the car was fine after $2500. Two days later driving north on 95 we lost the brakes again in Delaware. Luckily we were able to get off the highway and have the car towed to a local DE Toyota dealer. This dealer said that the master cylinder and brake boosters needed replacement and it would take 4-6 weeks for the brake booster to come in, so we flat bedded the car to our local dealer in MA. They concluded the same and cost for this will be another $2500. From reading in this forum and several others, replacing the master cylinder may not solve the issue. I'm wondering if other 2011 Sequoia owners have experienced the same. It's terrifying to lose your brakes and I've lost confidence in not only the car but also the mechanics at these locations.

Have had three instances of brake failure - pedal goes to the floor. The first two times were months apart and happened only once. Driver thought it was her imagination. The third instance was no question....had no brakes but was not too far from a dealership, so limped gingerly there. Shortly before arriving at the dealership the brakes came back.

The dealership could not find anything wrong with the brakes and said they tried every test and could find nothing. “Could not duplicate concern”. The mechanic talked with us and was very informative but could offer no explanation, although he suggested it could be the master brake cylinder, the vacuum system, or possible something to do with the ABS system. He was not sure it could be the master cylinder because “I have never known one to self heal”. He also was not sure it could be the vacuum system because there was no indication of a loss of pressure. He thought that maybe there could be a speck of stuff that prevented a rubber cup from sealing, but there was no way to be sure. Oddly, no warning lights ever came on, and nothing was noted in the diagnostics indicating any brake problems, loss of pressure, or problems with the ABS system.

We took it to an independent mechanic for a second opinion and he came up with the same answers.

Both the dealership and the independent mechanic said the only way to guarantee a fix would be to replace all of the parts in question. That would be a rather expensive fix.

We decided to have the master brake cylinder replaced and will hope this is the fix we need. The only way to know if it worked is if they don’t fail again, which is not a comforting thought. Needless to say our sense of security in this vehicle is gone.

This is not a cheap vehicle - we bought it used in January this year to replace a vehicle that had stranded us three times. Our whole purpose in buying the Sequoia was because we have always had good luck with our Toyota cars and we wanted a vehicle we could trust not to strand us. The Sequoia was very highly rated for safety and reliability. So a very discouraging and disheartening experience. And will add stress to every drive with this vehicle. Sigh.

Update from Oct 18, 2018: Update. We took the vehicle to our local mechanic who also could not duplicate the problem, but agreed with the dealership that the only way to solve the problem was to replace all the associated parts. With no other options we decided to start replacing things in the order of most likely so first on the list was the master brake cylinder. It cost about $500. On the way home from the mechanic the brakes went out again, and did so each time I drove (very carefully) the next day... drove back to the mechanic and suggested they keep it and have one of their mechanics drive it until it happened to them...which it finally did! They said the most likely cause based on his experience was the ABS module. We had it replaced with a genuine Toyota Part. This cost another $1200. We asked them to keep it a few more days and drive it. They reported no problems so we picked it up last night. I’ll drive for a few weeks at least before I’ll feel that the problem is solved. I’ll update in a few weeks.