Something in my car is causing a bad battery drain. The drain started once my cd player stopped working. The dealership thinks it's my radio. I still have the stock 03 bose 6 disk.

The battery drain is pretty bad. I'm on my second battery from auto zone since the middle of June. I have to jump my car about once a week. The battery just won't hold a charge after a while.

Is there a fix for the battery drain? I pulled the radio/audio fuse but that hasn't helped. I'm looking for a stock bose unit to just replace it. Any ideas? It's such a pain in the a$$ having to worry about my car starting every time and it's becoming a hassle to have to keep going to auto zone to exchange the battery for a new one.

Thanks guys

 

had the same issue. my radio didn't display anything or work for that matter. tossed out the radio and battery drain issue was gone.

 

Might want to get your car's alternator checked out.

 

It's been to the dealership twice and they have said that it isn't the alternator or starter. They have checked them both 2 different times.


Bump

 

it probably isn't the alternator and you may not want to keep buying batteries because they probably aren't bad, they just need to be charged. my wife's g35 is havin the same issue and she bought a new battery, without talking to me first, so now we have two good batteries. anyways, i've been researching this issue alot and i've found that several people have had this very problem with their '03 sedan. i've heard the problems ranging from the memory seats, to the alarm system, and now the radio. what i've also found is that someone on this forum, can't remember the dude or find the original post, made a troubleshooting procedure to find the problem. basically you get a multimeter and check the current drain on the battery, should be around 2-6 milliamps. you should see more than that because your battery is being sucked dry. after this you pull fuses one at a time, checking the current draw in between each time. once the drain lowers to normal you have found the culprit. since i've heard of many different reasons for the excessive current draw i would say that once you've found the culprit you should check the draw in between each fuse replacement as well to ensure that there aren't multiple faulted components.
My wife is still having this problem because the damn multimeter i borrowed was broken and read 0 amps draw and when i tried to measure the battery dc voltage it read 0 volts. i know i was using it right because i have a bit of experience with multimeters. anyways, hope the procedure helps.

 

I just bought a multimeter and will test out the different fuses. I took out my radio and heated seats fuse and now my air is suck on auto climate control at 75* the whole time. Is this suppose to happen? lol

 

did you remove these fuses prior to getting the multimeter? 75 degrees may be the default setting that circuit recognizes when there's an open in the circuit. just try to follow the procedure and let me know what you find out.

 

I tested it out today after I got home from work. I'm not sure what setting I had it on the multimeter because frankly, I don't know how to use one, lol. It read a consistent 12.5 while the radio and heated seats fuses were out. Plugged the heated seats fuse in and it still read 12.5. I then plugged in the radio fuse and it read 12.64. Took the fuse back out and it read 12.5 again. I repeated the process a few times and they kept reading out the same. I'm pretty sure it's my radio now. Now it is time to continue my search for a new HU.

 

Don't buy a new head unit yet. You performed the wrong process.

Lower your windows, close your doors, and disconnect your negative terminal.
Let your car sit for 15-20 minutes.
On the multimeter insert the red plug into the "10A" (10 amp) port.
Then move your selector dial to the "10A" selection.
Touch one probe to the negative post on the battery and the other to the negative terminal you removed.
You should get a reading of approximately 25-50 milliamps.
If you're higher, which it sounds like you will be, start pulling fuses one at a time.
Get a reading, remove the probes, pull a fuse, get another reading. If it doesn't change, replace the fuse, pull another, get a new reading.
When it changes (decreases), you've found your parasite.

 

Thanks for the help, I went and checked it the correct way today and it was reading at 21 milliamps with my radio fuse pulled and I can't remember what it read while the fuse was in, but it was a lot higher. I think it's the radio

 

1 week and still starting every time.

 

Great to hear. Did you pick out a new head unit yet?

 

i don't have a multimeter yet but i pulled the audio fuse to see if the car would start well the next morning but not only did it still have problems, that's not the concern, but when the car did start the radio and cd players both worked. i know i checked several times before pulling the fuse that it was the right one and it's the only one labeled anything that would have anything to do with the radio. can anyone help me out?

 

Still looking for one. Unfortunately it hasn't been my #1 priority right now so it's going kinda slowly lol


You probably just pulled the audio fuse that is in the fuse panel that is to the left of the foot parking brake. The actual radio fuse is in the fuse box inside the engine bay. The fuse box is located in the plastic area next to the battery.


2 weeks and still going strong, (fingers crossed)

 

Bumping up a very old thread

Finally got another stock radio and I installed it this weekend.

I went and rechecked the drain hoping a new radio fixed it. Is it normal for my multimeter (10A setting) to jump around 50 milliamps for a second or two then drop down to 10 milliamps and stay there? After holding it there for 30 seconds or so it went down and stayed at 8 milliamps for the rest of the time. Is it really suppose to stay that low?