2006 Solara engine doesn't turn off but keys are out???

[RDKamikaze]

Hmm, I don't know what happened!! I went to the bowling alley today and when I got out of my car, I notived that it was still running. I quickly grabbed for my keys in my pocket, and to my surprise they were there!! After a good while of thinking, I had to ask around for tools and got a hold on needlenose pliers, nothing else. So I pulled the EFI fuse and the engine stopped running. When I got home, I disconnected the battery terminals for a good 3 hours or so, in hope that resetting the ECU would fix the problem. When I connected it back up, I turned on the car. Then, when I tried to turn it off again, it still was on! Ahhh!!! Haunted car of dddoooooooommm!!!

What do I do? What could the problem be? I was in a hurry at the alley so I removed my keyts pretty quick, did I damage something in the ignition?? I'm not sure what the problem is, but now my baby is sitting at home until I can fix it! Any help would be great, thanks a ton!

[Biggi_e]

do you have remote start for your car? if you do, maybe something wrong with the wiring...?

[RDKamikaze]

Nope, no remote start for me. The only thing I have along those lines is the unlocker that came with the car. Any other ideas, anyone? Thanks for your help so far!

[krawzyazn]

disconnect your gas saver!

[System_Crash]

lmao ya maybee the car is running on the hydrogen
or it's probly the internals of you're ignition switch and you need a new ignition switch (that'll be fun) thoes damn tumblers are a pain!

[red2002solara]

Sounds like a problem with your ignition.

I had a similiar problem with my 85 Corolla SR5. I could pull the key out of the ignition and the car would keep running.

Good Luck

[Dawgz]

its all that hydrogen stuff u been feeding it.

[RDKamikaze]

I disconnected "all the hydrogen stuff" earlier because I was testing my mileage without it so that isn't it. I don't see why you all want to give me a hard time for saving gas, but whatever I don't care. I'm here to figure out what's wrong with my car, not that you are all skeptics about HHO.

Let's please stay on topic, thanks!

[TLMNICK]

Sounds like you're ignition remains active even after you take the key out. Here's a simple way to tell:

Hook your battery back up, and with the key OUT of the ignition, look at your guage cluster. If all the lights are on (battery, CEL, etc), then your ignition switch is messed.

If you have no aftermarket remote starter, alarms, etc....then just pull your lower dash panel off, and pull the plug to your ignition switch. See if your dash lights shut off then.

[RDKamikaze]

Awesome, thanks for telling me! The dash lights all do come on, I forgot to mention that. I went out to the car early this morning (like 2am) and found the battery was dead and had no charge. The dash lights were dim, too, because of the lack of power getting to them.

How hard is it to install a new ignition, and where can I find instructions on how to do it?

[no_escape]

Chiltons or Haynes book from your auto parts store will tell you how. It's not had to do if you have screwdrivers(phillips and flathead), socket set(metric), and pliers. I've done it on afew cars.

[MrMikeL]

How many miles do you have on your car? I would think it would be covered under the Toyota 3 year/36,000 mile warranty.

[RDKamikaze]

Haha, more than 36k miles. I have I think 57.8k miles on the car, and it's an 06. I did a lot of long-distance driving.

Well I got to the ignition switch and here's what I did. I turned the car on, engine running and all, then turned it off. Engine was still going (expected now), so then I disconnected the two plugs for the ignition switch that I saw (are there more than 2?). The engine DID NOT shut off, which kind of threw me off. To verify there no more connections, I put the key in and moved it every which way, and nothing was happening. What's this mean?

[Ilovemylara]

Hmmmm that sounds very strange... well i think normally you have a 12v+,12v- , and a ignition(as in starter)

[RDKamikaze]

So what are you trying to say? I just got an idea, is there any way it could be a relay gone bad or something? What relays are affected by the engine being on or off? First things that come to mind are ignition relay (if one), alternator relay (maybe?), or some other one??

Thanks for the help!