Expert: Cleggsan - 8/6/2010

Question
I'm having a problem with the Bose 6 CD player in a 2004 Chevy Silverado. I had the batteries replaced in April of this year and in July I began to find the batteries dead when I went to drive the truck, which is usually only once a week or so. The battery retailer checked the vehicle and found no drain and replaced the batteries for free under warranty. Now when I select the CD player, the little CD icon flashes and if I try to play one of the 6 discs, the screen says "no disc" yet I'm sure it's full. If I push eject, the screen says "no disc." When I push load, the screen says "initializing" and never changes from that. I bought this truck used several years ago and I don't have the anti-theft code that I've heard you talk of in your answers to other questions. Thank you.

Answer
Not sure what you mean by "batteries"?  Are you talking about the vehicle battery, the big 12v job under the hood?  

And, according to my information all 2004 models do have the security feature that requires code entry to start it up again after the battery has been disconnected.  BUT: that may be only for the Delco radios, I don't know.  You can check into that, but if the display comes up with a LOC notation then you need the code.

Perhaps the Bose changer is defective.  Can you reset it?  Remove power from the radio unit (pull a battery cable off the car battery) for 30 minutes and then power it up again.  See if that helps.

It is likely the changer is drawing down the battery.  It may be locked into the ON condition. When the battery personnel checked it they probably didn't see the small current that the changer is pulling, but over time it can drain the battery in a couple of days.  So, you might want to pull the 12v wire on it until you get it solved.  This might be worth checking into as well; these people have lots of experience with Bose units:

http://www.carstereohelp.com/bose.htm

The Bose systems are known to be quite troublesome and I would recommend you to get another opinion from Ernesto on allexperts as he has lots of hands-on experience with these vehicles as he works in the Pit so to speak.  

He can be queried on:

http://www.allexperts.com/ep/835-69262/Audio-Systems/Ernesto-R.htm

Best wishes.