Removing extra space in custom ActionBar

My problem is about using fully custom ActionBar views (as this is needed in order for my client to want the ActionBar to work). I removed the logo, title and everything else is possible. However, the custom view for the action bar will not span the entire screen.

I tried the following (as a quick overview):

• Dynamically removing aspects of ActionBar (snippet below)
• Complete removal of the options menu
• Specifying the style / theme to remove everything from the action bar

Here is a screenshot of my problem:

Here's the style: (as a side note, I originally kept the native ActionBar, but removed most of it)

<!-- Customized App Theme -->
<style name="AppTheme2" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    <!-- Let the actioBbar overlay the activity, ie activity is full screen -->
    <item name="android:windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
    <!-- Set up the action bar styles -->
    <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBarEmpty</item>
    <!-- Remove the shadow under the actionBar -->
    <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>

    <!-- Set the drawer icon to show up instead of the "Up" caret icon
    <item name="android:homeAsUpIndicator">@drawable/ic_drawer</item>
    <item name="homeAsUpIndicator">@drawable/ic_drawer</item>
    -->

    <!-- Support library compatibility -->
    <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBarEmpty</item>
</style>

<!-- Final, empty Action Bar style | makes space for customized actionBar -->
<style name="ActionBarEmpty" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Base.ActionBar">
    <!-- TODO: Add support versions -->
    <item name="android:displayOptions">none</item>
    <item name="android:background">@color/transparent</item>

    <!-- Tested the below, does absolute nothing -->
    <item name="android:layout_margin">0dp</item>
    <item name="android:padding">0dp</item>
    <item name="android:minWidth">0dp</item>
</style>

      

        
        
        
      

    

Here is the code in my Activity regarding setting up the ActionBar:

// Initialize and set up the ActionBar
mActionBar = getActionBar();
mActionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false);
mActionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false);
mActionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
mActionBar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);

// Set the actionBar layout initially to the simple one
mActionBar.setCustomView(mViewActionBarSimple);

      

        
        
        
      

    

Here is the view shown in the screenshot for the action bar:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:orientation="horizontal"
  android:layout_width="match_parent"
  android:layout_height="?android:actionBarSize"
  android:background="@color/white">
    <ImageButton
        android:id="@+id/navButton"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingTop="@dimen/padding_actionbar_icon"
        android:paddingBottom="@dimen/padding_actionbar_icon"
        android:paddingRight="@dimen/padding_actionbar_icon"
        android:paddingEnd="@dimen/padding_actionbar_icon"
        android:layout_marginLeft="@dimen/margin_actionbar_icon_left"
        android:layout_marginStart="@dimen/margin_actionbar_icon_left"
        android:src="@drawable/ic_drawer_normal"
        android:background="?android:attr/selectableItemBackground"
        />
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textTitle"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="@dimen/margin_general"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:textColor="@color/black"
        android:textSize="@dimen/text_normal"
        android:text="@string/garbage_fill_short"
        />
</LinearLayout>

      

        
        
        
      

    

In addition to trying to remove everything I could think of, I also tried to remove the options menu:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    return false;
}

@Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    // To remove the options menu - and make the custom actionBar take the full space -
        // always return false
    return false;
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

I am running this on a Samsung Galaxy S4 with Android KitKat.

Thanks for reading this. Any help would be helpful at this point.

Update: For anyone reading this, I don't know why it worked like this, but I ran into a problem after following the answer below. I surrounded the actionBar layout with a RelativeLayout [with LinearLayout and its content as children] and the width / background corrected themselves ... The answer is still amazing as it is very crisp and completely removes the actionBar even though I used to have everything still using this in some way.