2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser problems
NHTSA has received 167 complaints about the 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser, and 26% of them involve body & structure. Next are brakes (22%) and seat belts (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 167 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Body & structure 26% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 7 and 1
- Injuries and deaths
- 5 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 33,000 miles 131 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 43 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 34 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 10 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 11 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 9 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 5 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 6 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 3 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 8 |
What the data shows
Of the 131 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 33,000 miles. For body & structure specifically, the median reported mileage is about 33,000 miles (35 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 7 complaints mention a crash; 1 complaint mentions a fire; 5 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2008 ranks 2nd most-complained-about out of 7 model years of the Toyota FJ Cruiser with enough data (92 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 9 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 toyota fj cruiser. The contact stated that while driving approximately 35 MPH and trying to avoid crashing into some horses, the vehicle slid off of the road and crashed into a ditch. A rod engine failed and caused the crash to occur. The contact was injured. The vehicle was towed to a local repair shop but the engine was replaced at the contacts expense by an authorized dealer. The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was approximately 8,600.
A vehicle was traveling very slowly on a rural interstate as my toyota fj cruiser approached in the same lane. The driver of the fj cruiser braked quickly to avoid hitting the slow moving vehicle. However, an 18-wheeler behind it could not stop fast enough. It rear-ended my fj cruiser sending the front-end colliding directly into the back of the slow moving vehicle. As the 18-wheeler continued forward, my fj cruiser was squeezed out from between the two vehicles and pushed into another lane.
I drive a 2008 toyota fj cruiser. This evening while coming to a stop at a busy intersection, I hit a small but hard bump in the road and completely lost my brakes momentarily. About a second later the braking was restored, but not before I went through the stop and entered a busy four lane highway narrowly escaping a crash as an on-coming car swerved.
Vehicle was stationary in driveway my frame, some suspension components, and my rocker panels were falling apart in my hands