I've got a 2003 Camry SE, with the stock Radio/CD player, 6 speakers.
A couple weeks ago we had some unusually warm weather for January (I'm
in the chicago area.) For a couple days it got up as high as 50
degrees, and very humid. At that time, my radio appeared to go south.
The sound was full of static and distortion.

Adjusting the balance setting, I discovered that the left channel was
the problem. While the right channel was perfectly fine, the left
channel would either cut out completely, or be so full of static and
distortion that it was unusable. This was when the radio was playing;
AM or FM. When I switched to the CD player, BOTH left and right
channels worked fine.

This tells me that it wasn't the speakers, or the wiring, but that it
was the Radio/CD player unit that was defective. Somehow the left
channel - of the radio portion of the unit only - was defective.

When the weather returned to the typical cold, dry January weather,
the problem disappeared. BOTH left and right channels worked fine, for
both the radio and the CD player.

It was too much of a coincidence that the problem corresponded exactly
with the weather. So I'm left with no other conclusion that the root
cause of this problem was the unusually warm, humid weather in
January. Has anyone ever known of this happening? Any insight you can
provide would be appreciated.

Thanks.