Toyota

nettle_b

So here it is. I have a 2008 FJ 4x4 auto transmission w/appx 110,000 on it.
I bought it used but haven't had any issues. I love this vehicle!

Yesterday, it was driving fine. Took the dogs for a walk and when I started it back up:
-fan wasn't working
-exterior temp gauge
-blinkers
-air light bag was on
-battery gauge was below normal (about half)
-no battery light

Figured it was a fuse, did my research on another FJ Forum and replaced the appropriate fuse. Everything worked!
During this time the battery had drained down to 50% and I couldn't get it to turn over. The nice people at autozone put it on the charger and came back to tell me it was a bad battery. (Bad battery cause the fuse to blow?) So I bought a new battery.

All hooked up, started it up, components that hadn't been working were working, battery gauge was up, good to go.
Until I shifted into reverse.
Blew the same fuse (or so it seems). Same components go out and battery gauge dropped back down.

This was about 15 mins before they closed so I drove the 5mins home and decided to deal with it this weekend.

From what I'm reading it's probably the alternator or a wiring issue that is causing the fuse to blow, which in turn is causing the battery not to charge.

I also read it could be 2-3 other fuses, but with replacing the one everything was apparently fixed so not likely.

Any thoughts, advice, experience is appreciated!
Planning on taking it in to O'Reilly's to have the electronics tested too.