Hello, iam new here, I just purchased my very first Camaro, it's a 2002 Convertible and every morning the battery is dead, the previous owner installed a new Alt & Battery. The car came equipped with a factory security alarm system. The previous owner had a friend install a pioneer gps/stereo/cd player (with touch screen) and did a terrible job. after doing abit of reading, my concern's are: The factory radio, is it past of the security alarm system? by removing it, could this mess up the electrical system, so when the car is turned off, it's draining the battery? while driving the car there's a "security" light on, on the dashboard. Can i disable the alarm system to see if this is the problem? or if I go to the scrape yard and picked up a factory radio, this might also make the problem go away? (this would take me a while, he cut !! the wires, just behind the plug). help or suggestion would be deeply appreciated, thankyou. Joe

 

have you done the fuse test, check volt/amp draw on the battery as you unplug fuses. first thing i done with mine, when i got it, was rip the aftermarket alarm out. have seen many issues on here with em.

 

 

Hello, its not a aftermarket alarm system, they pulled out the factory radio and installed a pioneer navigation/stereo/cd player and they cut alot of wires from the radio wire harness, when they installed the pioneer the security light came on and stays on while driving, I disconnected the Radio and the security light is still on, now I thought the vats ran through the factory radio, but ive been told no, but you need the factory radio to program the vats, correct? when they cut the radio wires, what could they have cut, to cause the security light to come and now drains the battery at night

 

I'm pretty sure the Vats system has nothing to do with the radio. It controls things like the starter relay, fuel supply and PCM power which will disable the vehicle from starting. The theft protection of the radio is self contained within the radio and shouldn't effect the car's security system. Its purpose is to make the equipment inoperable in the case of unauthorized removal from the vehicle.
It's almost impossible know what the draw is from without knowing what wires were altered. Chances are also very possible that security light being on and the battery draw have nothing to do with each other. Preforming the draw test would help determine what circuit the problem exist in and how, if any, connection to the radio modifications there are.

 

the woman who owned this car, never had any issues with anything, until she let her 30ish something son, get his hands on it, this all started after he had someone install the Pioneer. What I know now is if I lock the car up at the end of the day, using the clicker, this turns the alarm system on? the battery will be dead in the morning, if i lock the car with the key, it'll start right up in the morning. I took the car to the chevy dealer and they shook there head in disbelief, If I have them work on it, he'll assign it to a specific mechanic, who worked on these cars, when they where new. They told me, the first thing they would do is replace the radio wiring harness, before they could troubleshoot (the wires where cutup that bad). unless I just choose to lock the car with a key, forever. because what ever they did, effected the the factory alarm system. what sad, yet kind of funny! is when i looked at this car and saw the screen, I thought it was his smartphone, sitting in a bracket, in front of the factory radio, after I bought the car, I had my daughter's husband drive it home, I saw the "screen" and was getting ready to call him up, to tell him, I had his smartphone.lol. It was my son in law that told me what this was, he was drooling over it. I told him flat out, thats got to go! I have no use for it, I want a factory radio back in it.

 

The VATS system (Resistor chip on key) and the Keyless Entry system (Key Fobs) are both separate functions that use the BCM, as does the radio. If the radio installer tapped into wrong wire, it is very possible that a load from the BCM could be powered to caused the battery to draw down. The fact that you say the battery does not run down if the car is not locked with the key fob would support this.

I would do as the garage suggested and replace the radio harness to eliminate any wiring errors the radio installation may have caused.