Just had a local shop do a brake fluid flush on my 2023 car and now the pedal feels soft and spongy even though I pumped it a bunch of times. There's no visible leaks that I can see. Should I go back to the shop or is there something I can do myself?
I dealt with this exact issue after a fluid change at home once, and it's almost always air in the lines. When they flush the system, tiny air bubbles can get trapped even if the work looks clean. The spongy pedal is your first sign that air is still in there compressing instead of hydraulic fluid transmitting your braking force. Pumping the pedal helps but often doesn't fully bleed everything out, especially if the shop didn't use a proper pressure bleeder or didn't follow the right sequence for your specific car model.
I'd go back to the shop first since they just did the work - this is pretty much their responsibility to fix. A proper bleed should take maybe 20-30 minutes with the right equipment. If you want to attempt it yourself, you'll need someone to pump the pedal while you open the bleeder valves at each wheel (usually starting with the one farthest from the master cylinder and working toward it), but honestly without a pressure bleeder or a vac tool, it's easy to introduce more air than you remove. The shop should stand behind their work here, especially if you're noticing it within days of the service.
One thing to mention when you contact them: make sure they know the pedal is spongy throughout the stroke, not just soft at the very end. That distinction helps them figure out if it's an air problem versus something else like a leak they might've missed. Don't drive aggressively until this gets sorted since your braking response is compromised.
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