My son has an '01 Max with the non-Bose stereo and the CD player would skip all the time. A friend of mine upgraded his perfectly fine '03 Max's stereo and I purchased his non-Bose unit as a replacement. Except for the control buttoms being laid out differently, it was an easy swap and everything plugged right in. The unit operated perfectly so I was extremely happy with the outcome. EXCEPT, now the battery has gone dead twice after sitting overnight. I had the entire battery/charging system checked out and all is A-OK, It seems the stereo is the culprit. It seems to be always drawing a little power all the time. We pulled the fuse to stop it (for now). I am puzzled by this turn of events and was wondering if anyone knew how this might be so. Is the wiring slightly different between the '01 & '03 models even though the plugs are the same? Thanks for any insight.

 

Sounds like a grounding issue. Maybe one of the other guys here can elaborate on any differences in the harnesses.

 

Update: we put the old stereo back in and the dead battery issues vanished, so without a doubt the '03 stereo was draining the battery. Yet, it never did so when it was in the
'03 Max. Any guesses from anyone? I'm stumped at this point. Thank you!

 

Man, I don't think anyone knows. Do you have access to the Service Manuals? The wiring information may be found there.