Radio Parasitic Battery Drain

[rjgogo]

I have a 2003 Suburban 2500 and I was having an issue where the battery was draining, Took the battery in and had it tested and it tested bad, replaced it and the new battery is now draining. Did some diagnosis and it turns out the radio circuit is drawing 1.24 amps with the key off and out of the truck. I guess that is the culprit. Now I am guessing it has something to do with the CD changer perhaps as there is only 1 CD in there and it won't eject, when I try to play it nothing happens and if it try to add a CD it says it is full. I also in the message INITIALIZING on the radio screen.

 

Anyone ever have any issues like this with the radio. I have the rear seat entertainment as well. Should I just replace the unit or is is serviceable? Can I get anyone off of Ebay or do I need to look for a particular model.

[oppirs]

I hope I'm not reviving a too old topic. But for me my 2002 GMC z71 had a 2.5 amp draw from the radio fuse circuit. New battery dead in 3 days! Was a junky radio so I replaced it w/ Dual xdm6350 in 12-2010. No issues at all.

 

Now my wife's 2004 GMC has developed the same problem - dead battery. Charger it up but charger never went to full for days showed 2.4 amps draw. Found the same radio circuit drawing 2.5 amps as my 2002. Fuse pulled for now. Her battery is only a year old. But she uses OnStar now is disabled.

 

Question are you finding the stock radios going bad? I don't care for OnStar, but she likes it. Any aftermarket radios compatibly with OnStar?

[sevewparadise]

I have a similar issue with the 2003 Sierra Reg Cag v6 2wd. I have a constant drain on my battery of 1.3 amps. I narrowed it down the the ipc and radio fuse.

 

Does anyone know if the BCM is connected to these circuits?? I am going to unplug the radio and test the circuit again. My gagues are working fine but sometimes with the truck off and key out the gear indicator leds light up solid green??

[chino71zx]

I have a similar problem with a 2004 Suburban. I get a 3.0 amp drain with the ke3 out of the ignition. When I pull the 15A radio fuse it drops to 0.8 amps of drain. I am getting a 2.2 amp drain from the radio. Is it the radio gone bad? I have read that I need a special $100+ harness to keep my Bose speakers working and keep the steering wheel functions working. Is this true. Has anyone needed/wanted to keep the steering wheel function and Bose system working? Is it very difficult to replace?

[chopper-boyz]

I am glad I found this post. I too am having my battery drain with my 2003 1500HD, I get a 1.22A reading when I pull the 15 amp fuse for the radio it drops to about 0.7A. My question is this, is 0.7A enough to kill the battery as well?? I drive my truck once

per week if I am lucky as I ride a motorcycle every day... Have folks here replaced their radios with aftermarket units and been ok?? I also found on another forum that there

was a service memo from GM regarding battery drain around 2003 and my serial number is in the range..