Hello/Help please,
Took the G ('03 Sedan) in last week to local garage, and they told me to go to the DEALER (ugh):
-(new) Battery drains overnight or faster;

-We thought it was the alternator at first;

-Garage says both battery and alternator are fine, and that they isolated a 500+ milliamp draw somewhere in the stereo, most likely from a short in the stereo control circuit board;

-apparently a recall for this was issued sometime in '06 (before I owned the vehicle)

-dealer quoted a $750 cost which includes labor to replace the stereo unit, provided that is actually the problem.

In the meantime we have no defrost, no air vent controls also, and have dealt with the problem by simply removing the fuse for the stereo and heat/vent controls. Is this quote from the dealer reasonable?

 

go with the double din kit.

 

i have a 2003.5 i have had this problem.

first question do you have navi?

Second thing if u do not have navi, is your climiate control say auto?
if so you will just need to replace the stero with an aftermarket one and you will be just fine. the stero is connected to the climate control in some type of way. when your radio goes which they mostly do it cuts off all control to the climate control once you replace the stero with factory or aftermarket everything will come back.

 

not to sure about battery drain tho

 

^You were right on with your first post.
And yes, the battery drain is coming from the head unit.

In my case it was the cd changer (jammed) that wasn't letting the unit shut off properly.
I ended up gutting the thing and putting it back together with no CD changer.
Everything else worked fine (AM/FM, Tape and A/C controls) and the battery drainage issue was gone

 

No it's not a reasonable quote. I had the same issue due to a jammed CD. The changer tries to eject the stuck disc but can't because it's jammed. Eventually the it fries a chip on the circuit board that controls the stereo, air conditioner controls etc. Long story short, I had a shop called Radio Medics in Rancho Cordova, CA replace the fried chip on the circuit board and now no more issues with the parasitic battery drain. Cost was $285 in Jan., 2009. Good Luck!!!