cd player

[david lee]

i had my radio replaced under warranty with a brand new one in 2006 and ive only used the cd a couple of times back then now it dosent work.also most of the lights in the radio stopped working.ive bought a used one from the wreckers and the cd dosent worh either.the wrecker says it was a common problem as after 5years they get faulty my question is has anyone had this problem and at what cost to get repaired .thanks

[valiant81]

Hi Davie;
The CD meck in alot of car stereo's is the weakest part of the of the set it's self . CD's will go the same way as cassette tape and for the same reasons, they are a mechanical device and sooner or later will suffer from dirt , dust or vibration.

I also have a au ford and while the cd still works in it l have a fair amount of my music transfered over to a little usb stick ( 32 Gb ) and have about 2000 songs on it and have only used about 2/3 of the memory of the stick., no moving parts and the quality is just as good.

I have a small usb player that plugs in to the cigarette socket and transmitts the signal to the car radio. Just tune in the radio in to the RF frequency of the transmitter and away you go.

I got mine from E bay and cost about $10.00 from China.

New cars now don't even have a CD meck built in but have a usb port for these sticks.

[david lee]

Originally Posted by valiant81

Hi Davie;
The CD meck in alot of car stereo's is the weakest part of the of the set it's self . CD's will go the same way as cassette tape and for the same reasons, they are a mechanical device and sooner or later will suffer from dirt , dust or vibration.

I also have a au ford and while the cd still works in it l have a fair amount of my music transfered over to a little usb stick ( 32 Gb ) and have about 2000 songs on it and have only used about 2/3 of the memory of the stick., no moving parts and the quality is just as good.

I have a small usb player that plugs in to the cigarette socket and transmitts the signal to the car radio. Just tune in the radio in to the RF frequency of the transmitter and away you go.

I got mine from E bay and cost about $10.00 from China.

New cars now don't even have a CD meck built in but have a usb port for these sticks.

thanks for the info but i would like to get it fixed just for the hell of it.not that i would use it.if it costs to much i wont bother

[Bushbasher]

You probably won't get it fixed cheaper than just finding a working replacement. Is it a single CD player or a 6 stacker?

[david lee]

Originally Posted by Bushbasher

You probably won't get it fixed cheaper than just finding a working replacement. Is it a single CD player or a 6 stacker?

its a single but what gets me i found an old casette and it works to my amazement but not the cd surely its worth while to get a quote to fix it as strathfield car radio has told me an electronic place in marrickville fixes radios and is only 10 min from my place surely ive got nothing to lose

[valiant81]

Hi David;
I'm now retired and used to work in the electronic industry repairing television , audio and video, domestic and commercial equipment and also have repaired several ( read lots!! ) cd mecks in car radio's and general hi fi.

The problem is the labour would kill you, to fault find what is wrong with your unit order and replace parts and then just to see if there are any more problems, then you wold have to also do a clean and service and then soak test for several hours. Any echanical devise inside of a car is going to suffer from dust and vibration and will cause problems further down the track.

Time taken could go well over 2~3 hours and at and i used to charge $85 per hours. So you would be looking at $250 for labour, as for parts for that unit, a laser or or complete cd drive mech + belts and a pinch roller for the cassette deck and even a possable new motor for the cassette deck, these alone, the motor could cost alont $40 just by it's self.

So a repair cost of $500.00 would not be out of the question.

This is why i went down the parth of a usb stick and FM transmitter.
The original radio, if yours still works,stays in your car, so as you then keep the car as original as possable and not a problem if you change over to a nother vechile.

[Spurious]

I agree with valiant81.

I too went down the path of buying a $180 Clarion touchface head unit.
USB & ipod connectivity only, plus radio...not that I care for fm or am.

Not a single issue in 3 years. All the music I want goes onto an 8GB usb stick... & that's it!

I learnt early on that factory stereos are garbage for the most part.

[david lee]

hi valiant 81 what did you type into e bay for this gadget sounds like the way to go.saves buying a heap of cds.do you download music from your computer.that way would cost nothing thanks

[FOCUSonTHIS]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bluetooth...item4d2ef93f23


Would be something like that

[valiant81]

Hi David;
I did the same as our other member has done. Just e-bay and type in usb fm transmitter and up it came payed about $ 8.00 including postage. The unit arrived a couple of weeks later, payed by pay pal, so all good.

As for the sound quality, as good as FM. Now no problems with music skipping.

I now have a few usb sticks, cheapest was from office works and about $6.00 for a 8 Gb stick . bloody lot of music you can store on 8 Gb's.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by valiant81

New cars now don't even have a CD meck built in but have a usb port for these sticks.

Erm, most of the Ford range from Focus to Transit have them fitted as standard.

Those that don't have CD players would probably be the beancounter's idea.

[valiant81]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Erm, most of the Ford range from Focus to Transit have them fitted as standard.

Those that don't have CD players would probably be the beancounter's idea.

Hi gasolane;
Yes you are correct with what you have said, but from where I'm comeing from is and if you can think back that far, the early car radio's ran of a bank of batterys for the high voltage that valves required and the heaters for the valves were wired to run of various car battery voltages ( 6 or 12 Volts ) .
Then genmotor came into the norm ( a electric motor and high voltage aulternator in the one package ( second world war ) for the high voltage that these radios needed) the valves heaters were still wired for 12 or 6 volt .

Alot of early radios also had a vibrator for the high voltage the valves needed. I used to repair them in my apprentiship

Then along came the transistor, first for just the audio out put and finaly throughout the rest of the set.

Then along came the humble cassette,that suffered from tape streach, wow & flutter, motor problems, poor quality heads, dirt, dust and poor quality build units. To the point some set looked like the chassies were made from recycled dog food tins.

Technology changed over time and low and be hold the CD was born ( and the spin off that was the DVD ). No more wow and flutter or tape streach.

The down side was they also suffer from motor problems, dirt and dust and alot of the lasers had a very short life span and were lucky to last the warrentee.
Multy CD decks , well some were a nightmare from the start and alot were more of a problem with exchanging CD's, let alone put one in a car.

Yes there are car radio's that still have a CD and even a cassette deck built in, but will still suffer the same problem as all of the others CD car radio's, dirt and dust, lasers etc etc etc.

The writing is on the wall re car audio. Due to the advancement with computer it is quiet easy nowerdays to rip or down load music back to your computer. Then one can copy on to a usb stick and away you go.

I've just replaced my minidisk car radio in my 4x4 for a new deck ( Kenwood ) that only has a AM, FM and short wave radio and NO CD meck, just a usb port on front to plug my music sticks into, and the cost ......well just on $140.00. No moving parts, no wow and flutter, no CD mecks and did you know? just about all decks have 3 motors built in ( loading motor, the spin motor and a nother motor that moves the laser along a sled to the correct part of the CD). So the problem is 3 times as bad with a CD deck.There is also a focusing coils to move the laser up and down, so as to focus on the CD disk and read the imformation, about 2 mm is the normal focus height.

Is it any wonder that the humble car CD player will go along the same parth as parth as the cassette, AM radio and even valves.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by valiant81

Yes there are car radio's that still have a CD and even a cassette deck built in, but will still suffer the same problem as all of the others CD car radio's, dirt and dust, lasers etc etc etc.

No worries. I replaced our original double din head unit with an Alpine one.
The original had the CD stacker in the Glovebox (Blaupunkt, I think) the Alpine's (single CD) is behind the front screen so there won't be a lot of dust getting in there.

This also has USB, Bluetooth and iPod connections, but I like being able to pick my music without too much searching.

[david lee]

is it possible for any member to show a picture of where the laser is located thanks to all for information

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by david lee

is it possible for any member to show a picture of where the laser is located thanks to all for information

Google is your friend

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=c...w=1902&bih=906

[valiant81]

Hi david;
Why do you want to find out were the laser is ????

[david lee]

Originally Posted by valiant81

Hi david;
Why do you want to find out were the laser is ????

somebody on a nother site said he has fixed 4 au cds by cleaning the laser with a cotton bud after removing the top of the radio.so i supose its worth a try.

[valiant81]

Hi David;
Ok, now I know were you are comming from. All dvd and cd players are basicly have the same design, as for the laser if you can see the round small platter the holds the cd ( dvd ). This is the drive to spin up the disc,well with no disk in the deck the laser is a small round glass like very small dome and at rest will be near the disk platter. CD's and DVD play the disk from the inside to the outside.

As for cleaning you have to be very carefull with cleaning as the laser, as the laser in on a subspention and is designed to move up and down so as the laser can focus on the disk and it would only move a couple of mm's.

All that i have used to clean lasers is a cotton bud and breath on the end of the bud and just use that to clean the laser. DO NOT USE CEMICALS OF ANY TYPE !!!!!! I can't tell you enough,be very carefull doing this prceedure with a cotton bud.
Other things can also go wrong with the meck is the wears out and fails to read the disk, motors fail ( develope a dead spot and refuse to spin ) and this would be were to repair your deck, you would be out of your depth.

[david lee]

Originally Posted by valiant81

Hi David;
Ok, now I know were you are comming from. All dvd and cd players are basicly have the same design, as for the laser if you can see the round small platter the holds the cd ( dvd ). This is the drive to spin up the disc,well with no disk in the deck the laser is a small round glass like very small dome and at rest will be near the disk platter. CD's and DVD play the disk from the inside to the outside.

As for cleaning you have to be very carefull with cleaning as the laser, as the laser in on a subspention and is designed to move up and down so as the laser can focus on the disk and it would only move a couple of mm's.

All that i have used to clean lasers is a cotton bud and breath on the end of the bud and just use that to clean the laser. DO NOT USE CEMICALS OF ANY TYPE !!!!!! I can't tell you enough,be very carefull doing this prceedure with a cotton bud.
Other things can also go wrong with the meck is the wears out and fails to read the disk, motors fail ( develope a dead spot and refuse to spin ) and this would be were to repair your deck, you would be out of your depth.

i might just take it over to the electronics place i mentioned for his opinion and if to costly i will get one of those cd transmitters u mentioned but that creates another problem .i will have to find someone to download a list of songs to a usb stick approx 20 songs as my computer runs to slow thanks