Car CD Player not working (sometimes) Question

[US 41]

So here's the deal. My car is a 2005, so it is roughly 12 years old now. The CD player I'm pretty sure is original. The thing will play my Cd's without any problems for 2 or 3 months straight and then randomly decide that it doesn't want to read any CD from anywhere to a week to up to a month. So does it sound like I need a new CD player or do you think my CD player is just dirty.

I was thinking about buying a can of air and spraying it in there to maybe try clean it a little to see if that helps, but I don't want to tear anything up. Any suggestions?

[NE2]

It doesn't like your conservative talk radio.

[Brandon]

So here's the deal. My car is a 2005, so it is roughly 12 years old now. The CD player I'm pretty sure is original. The thing will play my Cd's without any problems for 2 or 3 months straight and then randomly decide that it doesn't want to read any CD from anywhere to a week to up to a month. So does it sound like I need a new CD player or do you think my CD player is just dirty.

I was thinking about buying a can of air and spraying it in there to maybe try clean it a little to see if that helps, but I don't want to tear anything up. Any suggestions?

I'd try to clean it with a CD cleaner specifically made for cleaning car CD players first.  If that doesn't work, then you might need a new CD player.

[briantroutman]

I think there's a solid possibility that the laser pickup lens is dirty, but I wouldn't just shoot canned air into the slot. That would be like trying to clean a spot off your kitchen floor by tossing a bucket of water in from the doorway.

The typical CD player cleaner looks like a standard CD but has a tiny eyelash-like brush attached to the underside. These aren't specifically intended for car CD players, but I've used them on various slot-loading drives with good results.

[thenetwork]

One thing that will give my car's CD player hissy fits sometimes is inserting a CD with a paper label (those CDs that someone added their own printed label onto). 

I (briefly) started making my own labels for homemade CDs, and if you didn't get all the air bubbles out from under the label, or if the label itself made the entire CD "microscopically" thick enough to rub up against the innards of the player, the CD would only play the first few tracks, if at all, as I found out.

That's why you don't see too many CD labeling kits anymore!

[sparker]

One of the issues with car CD players (and some entry-level home players as well) is that the constant vibration of the car can, over time, misalign the laser in relation to the physical alignment of the CD on its spindle.  A competent repair facility should be able to check this out and correct the issue. 

If misaligned, the laser won't pick up the CD's table of contents -- which it must do in order to continue on to the music itself; that table is located near the center of the disc (CD's read from inside to outside, unlike LP's!). 

Best of luck with this!

[Rothman]

I had one go kaput because a spider built a web in my A/C drain and clogged it.  The backed up water spilled over onto the player and killed it.

[US 41]

I think there's a solid possibility that the laser pickup lens is dirty, but I wouldn't just shoot canned air into the slot. That would be like trying to clean a spot off your kitchen floor by tossing a bucket of water in from the doorway.

The typical CD player cleaner looks like a standard CD but has a tiny eyelash-like brush attached to the underside. These aren't specifically intended for car CD players, but I've used them on various slot-loading drives with good results.

I've tried that before and it didn't seem to help any. But I also do think something is dirty in there. I might try it again though to see if it helps any.

Two days ago I got it to play a CD finally and it played two songs before deciding that it wasn't going to play anymore. What's odd is that I can put the CD in and it knows how many songs are on the CD, but it refuses to actually play any of the songs.

I have a newer CD Player (it's a Pioneer something or another from Walmart). I'm not really that crazy about it though which is why I haven't put it in. The screen and the buttons are too small on it and the sun glares off of it making it even harder to see. I also just don't want to mess with putting a new CD player in it. Maybe I could get get lucky and find a stereo from a 05 Neon and just switch them out that way.

All I know is listening to the radio, rather than your personal music gets kind of old after a while.

[LM117]

I've tried that before and it didn't seem to help any. But I also do think something is dirty in there. I might try it again though to see if it helps any.

Two days ago I got it to play a CD finally and it played two songs before deciding that it wasn't going to play anymore. What's odd is that I can put the CD in and it knows how many songs are on the CD, but it refuses to actually play any of the songs.

Your player is toast. You can try cleaning it again just to be sure, but from what you just described, it's time to put it out of it's misery. I've had players act the same way before and rarely did cleaning ever work and the times that it did only helped for a short time.

[GCrites]

I've cleaned/replaced a zillion lasers on video game systems as a game store owner. Over time, with the modern video game systems (PS2 and up) the fan sucks dust into the system which gets dust all over the laser. The CDs with brushes on them only clean the top lens of the laser and not the rest of it. Dust can lurk deeper. We have to disassemble the system and blast the laser with compressed air from an air compressor (canned air is weak and gets cold too quickly). Then we clean the lens with rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip. Car CD players that I know of don't have fans, so if the brush CD doesn't fix it you are done. All optical lasers can get weak and die over time while others last forever. Inconsistent behavior such as the OP is experiencing can be caused by hairs that wrap themselves around the spindle either obscuring the lens or stopping the spindle motor. Disassembly is the only way to remove hair.

[GaryV]

Somebody want to explain to noel what a CD is?   

[Otto Yamamoto]

CD player? How quaint

XT1254

[1995hoo]

Somebody want to explain to noel what a CD is?   

You really want to confound him, show him the slot labelled "Acura" in the photo below below of my 2004 TL's dashboard.

(Bonus points if you find the error in that photo. Not my error, BTW.)

[Takumi]

(Bonus points if you find the error in that photo. Not my error, BTW.)
(snip)

VA 267 in Springfield?

[1995hoo]

(Bonus points if you find the error in that photo. Not my error, BTW.)
(snip)

VA 267 in Springfield?

You're on the right track, although that's not it because that shield says "2677," which is the secondary route number for Frontier Drive. The error may be rather hard to discern.

[ZLoth]

So here's the deal. My car is a 2005, so it is roughly 12 years old now. The CD player I'm pretty sure is original. The thing will play my Cd's without any problems for 2 or 3 months straight and then randomly decide that it doesn't want to read any CD from anywhere to a week to up to a month. So does it sound like I need a new CD player or do you think my CD player is just dirty.

I was thinking about buying a can of air and spraying it in there to maybe try clean it a little to see if that helps, but I don't want to tear anything up. Any suggestions?

A CD player in a car is probably more complex than a CD player at home because of the mechanics in pulling in and ejecting a CD, plus the environmental extremes of a vehicle wrecks havoc on a CD player. The CD player is also following the tape player to the car tech scrapyard.

You did mention the year of your vehicle, but not your make and model. I do know that my old 2005 Chevy Malibu's radio was integrated with other systems in the car, so replacing it with another radio was out of the question when the rarely-used CD player broke. There was no Aux input, so I ended up having a FM modulator installed so that I could hook up my smartphone and listen to audiobooks while taking a week-long road trip. The cost of installing that FM modulator was $100, which was much cheaper than attempting to fix the CD player (over $300).

[GCrites]

So here's the deal. My car is a 2005, so it is roughly 12 years old now. The CD player I'm pretty sure is original. The thing will play my Cd's without any problems for 2 or 3 months straight and then randomly decide that it doesn't want to read any CD from anywhere to a week to up to a month. So does it sound like I need a new CD player or do you think my CD player is just dirty.

I was thinking about buying a can of air and spraying it in there to maybe try clean it a little to see if that helps, but I don't want to tear anything up. Any suggestions?

A CD player in a car is probably more complex than a CD player at home because of the mechanics in pulling in and ejecting a CD, plus the environmental extremes of a vehicle wrecks havoc on a CD player. The CD player is also following the tape player to the car tech scrapyard.

Yes, most home CD players have a tray that ejects the CD or an even simpler one where you drop the disc in from the top (also seen on PS1s, Slim PS2s and Slidetop PS3s. Car CD players suspend the CD on a rubber mounted mechanism and have fingers that draw the disc into them as seen on the Wii and most PS3s. This helps keep the music from skipping as you hit bumps.

[US 41]

I decided this morning to replace it with a brand new one. It cost me around $90 for everything I needed, but it's going to be well worth the money as much as I travel in my car. It took me about an hour to install it. I'm keeping the old one and if I ever sell my car I'm going to take the new one out and put the old one back in it. 

[1995hoo]

Dude, $90 for car stereo stuff is nothing.