What's the deal with car CD players?

K

komondor

Joined
Jul 2, 2001
Messages
4,264
I installed a rather high-end Eclipse CD player in my car only five years ago. After some growing problems the last half year or so, the thing hardly works now. When I put a CD in, it won't play until I eject it and slide it back in, over and over again. When it finally does start to play, it keeps skipping, sometimes to the point where it will shut itself down.

I know that CD players in cars will get knocked out of alignment because they are not stable like home systems, and I do travel more often on bumpier, back roads than most people because of my job, but it seems ridiculous that an expensive CD player will get this messed up only after five years.

Do they repair these, or do they get replaced? Does anyone else have an Eclipse, or has anyone else had similar problems with their car units?
 
I've had two Eclipse units. They, and all the others, do wear out. How fast depends on environment and use. Mine routinely gets baked in outdoors parking in the summer and frozen in single digit winters.

The spindles that spin the disk are what usually wear out with use, which prevents the disk from being read properly. Alignment can be a problem too. What I've heard is that they're designed for about 1000 hours of use. Repair is usually more than their depreciated worth and won't give you another 1000 hours of use.

The current Eclipse is 6 years old. Last summer, it would start to pick up intereference as the operating temperature rose. It cured itself in the fall and hasn't started up with that since. But it's just getting hot again now.

Phil
 
I am interested in this a bit myself. Last summer I bought a used car with a factory CD player, that kinda sorta works. When I first bought the car I thought it wouldn't be all that important, as the radio worked fine. Now it is just starting to bug me, and want one that actually works.

I guess trying a cleaner is worth a shot, but really I am thinking of just replacing it. If anyone else has some recommendations I would try them, as I don't really have the extra money.

And for what its worth, I did ask around when I bought the car. The general feeling I got was that while repairing can be done it is not worth it. Basically you need to pay to have the thing removed, and then sent back to the manufacturer. After all of that you might end up finding that the player can't be repaired. Now with newer technology it would just make more sense to replace it, you will end up spending about the same money, and have a better cd player.
 
Paul, I have not tried cleaning it yet.

I also noticed these things get sensitive with the heater on full bore when it is 0° outside. Too much heat causes it to shut down.

It seems to me the best thing to do when assembling a car system is to go high-end on the speakers and amp/receiver-- if necessary-- and not spend so much on a player, since they crap out after a few years. I don't mean buying the Wal-Mart special, but getting a low end name-brand unit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top