Here's the problem. Sometimes when I turn on the CD changer, it takes an extremely long time before it starts playing -- from 20 seconds to over 2 minutes! The changer is actually playing but no sound comes out until that extended delay.

Further, even more occasionally (3 times altogether now, once Friday, 2x Saturday), when the sound comes on after the delay, it's extremely loud and distorted. It sounds like the stereo is blown. The sound that comes out of the speakers is unrecognizable noise. No sound from the left channel, and noise from the right. Very weird. At this point, the noise comes from any source -- not just the CD changer. Turning the radio off and on does not eliminate the distortion. But if I turn the key off and on, then the problem goes away, and the sound that comes out of the speakers (from any source) is normal.

This is what happened on Friday when I went to the dealer. The distortion was occurring and I was near the dealer, so I stopped in to show them. But when I came back and restarted the car to show him, it was gone and everything worked normally. Ugh.

Then, when the noise happened again yesterday, I pulled off the side of the road, stopped the ignition, restarted, and again, the distortion was gone.

Has anyone seen something like this?