Car Stereos: Repalcing car amplifier, car amplifier, car audio system

Question
After testing, I was told by my mechanic that the cause of my battery draining was the amplifier on my car audio system (factory installed). To prevent the battery from draining, I have to pull the fuse that powers the audio system. When I replace the fuse, the radio works fine, but when the car is left overnight with the fuse in, the battery drains. The weird thing about the battery drain is that the car is 7 years old with no after market addons.
Anyway, here's my question: Can I just buy any new amp and connect it to my existing system without changing the wiring, as long as I replace the amp with one with the same power?
Thanks!

Answer
Hi Carol,

Sorry for the delay; I've written a nice long answer to this question on a few different occasions, and the allexperts site has messed up in one way or another preventing me from sending it, so lets try this again.

To start, having the fuse in causing the battery to drain isn't necessarily the amplifier.  It could be simply a corroded wire, or something else.

I would suggest first putting the fuse in, and disconnecting the amplifier from the system at the harness (it should be a little plastic clip with wires coming out of it going into the amp).  See if the battery still drains with that removed.

If it does not, then it is the amp, and you'll need to replace it.  If it does, then you'll likely want to take your car into a mechanic to find the corroded wire, or whatever it is that's causing your issue.

If it turns out that you do need to replace your amp, you'll need to check sites like crutchfield.com, and see if they have 'factory amp bypass kits'.  These kits are usually plugged into the amp's harness, and bypass the amp's functionality, thereby making the system work like a factory one without an amp.

Once you've done that, you can install any amp you like, but you'll want to get someone experienced to do it, as there are various issues that could creep up in your particular car, as some factory speakers share a common ground, and have other weird wiring phenomenons an experienced installer would know about.

So the short answer is: if your amp is indeed dead, yes, you can replace it with just about anything, but the amount of work involved in putting the new amp in could differ pretty widely based on the car and its system.

Justin