Hello Everyone,
I am the proud owner of an '08 FJ Cruiser who loves my FJ for its reliability and awesome off-road capabilities for the trails here in Colorado. The other day, I went to my favorite back-country shooting range that requires 4wd, and a high clearance vehicle. The road leading back to the range is rough, and had some pretty deep washouts and some intense washboards to shake things up along the way.
That being said, I had an issue with my FJ come up the day after my small adventure, and need some help to find the fix. Since my trip, my battery ran dead twice after I left it in the parking lot of my job. Each time, it sat for about 10 hours before I realized the one-year-old battery was dead and I had to jump it. At the same time, my key fob stopped working. I mentally ruled that out and blamed it on a dead battery in the fob. Following, I had my car battery tested, and the battery tested strong after it was charged ruling the battery out as the issue.
After having the battery tested, I noticed two things. One, my lights were not shutting off at all, even with the key off and pulled out. I let them sit for 10 minutes to see if they would go off on a timer, played with my light switch, turning them off then on, pulled my emergency brake and dropped it a few times (noting that the FJ's lights will stay off after a start-up until the e-brake is dropped), and could not get them turned off at all. I ended up pulling my fuses for the low beams in order to get them turned off to prevent them from draining my battery. The second issue I noticed was this: after getting back into my FJ to play with my light switch, I noticed that my blower motor was still running, and that the gear-select light in my dashboard remained lit, even with the key removed from the ignition. To solve this issue, I obviously just turned my blower and AC off.
By pulling my fuses, and by ensuring that my blower motor is off when I park the FJ, I am able to keep my battery with enough charge to start my engine and to have everything else function normally when I come back to it. Initially, I blamed my ignition switch, and simply figured that it was not registering the "off" position. I ordered a new ignition starter switch off of Amazon and replaced it myself today. Unfortunately, it did nothing for me, and I am still having the same issue.
I am not a mechanic, but have avoided a mechanic for about a decade now by being savvy enough to take care of my own issues. But now, I am having an issue that is beyond what I am able to solve by myself. I searched the forums and the internet today for similar issues, but none that I could find were similar enough to mine to help me out.
My ask is this: have any of you had an issue like mine? Also, do any of you have any solutions or ideas for solutions that may keep me from having to go to spend my hard earned cash at a dealership or mechanic for diagnostics?
For those of you wondering, this is the switch that I installed today:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002E571U6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
