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Car CD player on strike
theconrodkid - 3/7/21 at 10:49 AM

greetings all, got into my car yesterday after it had been sitting in the burning sun for a couple of hours, it was really roasty inside , when i drove off i noticed the CD didnt play but an "error" message came up, tried again this morning and tried another disc, same outcome, any suggestions or is it time to bin it ?

loggyboy - 3/7/21 at 10:44 PM

Whats a CD?

Mr Whippy - 4/7/21 at 04:33 AM

I'd have to ask my granny.

David Jenkins - 4/7/21 at 09:23 AM

My entire record collection is loaded onto a physically tiny 64Mb USB memory stick that I plug into the car. The main problem is that it's so tiny that I keep misplacing the stupid thing every time I unplug it to connect my phone.

theconrodkid - 4/7/21 at 01:50 PM

thing is, all my music is on Cd,s, i spose i could get them put onto a stick but that would mean a new "head unit" or whatever it is called as my cd player is 09 vintage and dont have any extra inputs, would a new unit fit without bodging the millions of wires that are hidden behind the unit, also i like the fact that all my fave albums are on seperate discs, so if i fancy a bit of led zep instead of floyd, i just eject one disc and slide another one in the slot
if i have to bite the bullet, can anyone recomend a basic unit, dont want the light fingered gits taking a fancy to my stuff.

Mr Whippy - 4/7/21 at 04:20 PM

You can simply use a mp3 to FM transmitter that you tune your radio into while still using the original radio. I too have a large CD collection but it never gets used, its all just stuffed in a cupboard. Instead I downloaded everything from YouTube using free apps directly onto the computer and then onto my phone. Sadly I now look at my CD collection as one massive waste of money a format that never lived up to its promise. It's funny, I don't think my kid's have ever seen one being played!

Dingz - 4/7/21 at 09:08 PM

I’m interested in this, my car uses a dvd for the satnav and recently when it gets hot it stops recognising the disc, CD player seems fine though. I was wondering if trying to clean the read head somehow would help?

theconrodkid - 5/7/21 at 06:19 AM

Dingz, that,s what i thought, it,s slightly easier to remove the engine with a rusty spoon, i may have to warm up my chain saw
Mr Whippy, i am afraid all that tech stuff goes straight over my head, i may have to get one of the local "yoof,s" to sort it for me

nick205 - 5/7/21 at 10:05 AM

CDs.....?

Now there was a thing.

We don't have a CD player at home or in the car any more. The car connects stereo connects via Bluetooth to mobile phones, which have Spotify music saved on them and stream music that way. The car also has an SD memory card slot in the glovebox - it works (I tested it). We don't use it though.

Sonos Wi-Fi speakers stream Spotify in the house so having music on cassetts, vinyl or CD is jst a thing of the past here.

Spotify family subscription is £16.99 / month. I spent more than than that buying CDs in times gone by. With a family subscription each family member (at the same address) get's their own Spotify account and can listen away and download music for offline listening.

For me commuting on buses and trains being able to listen on my phone, offline ticks the box.

Spotify has a humungous music choice as well.



I should add SWMBO & I do still have our CDs in boxes in the cupboard under the stairs.
LPs were disposed of when I sold the turntable (the music's on Spotify).
Cassete's were thrown out years ago when I sold my cassette deck. Truly awful things IMHO, naff sound quality saved by the cheap method of recording (copying) other music. Again the music's on Spotify.

[Edited on 5/7/21 by nick205]

[Edited on 5/7/21 by nick205]

theconrodkid - 6/7/21 at 06:29 AM

Nick, it,s ok your you young guns , my phone is powered by steam and of the wrong type to do all these fancy things, my choice of music is pretty limited, all of which i can download from youtube and play ad infinitum, anyhow i have found a head unit that will dowhat i need, just a matter of getting the old one out without wrecking the dash

nick205 - 6/7/21 at 07:33 AM

quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
Nick, it,s ok your you young guns , my phone is powered by steam and of the wrong type to do all these fancy things, my choice of music is pretty limited, all of which i can download from youtube and play ad infinitum, anyhow i have found a head unit that will dowhat i need, just a matter of getting the old one out without wrecking the dash



Fair dos

Swapping head units shouldn't be too hard. IIRC older style head units needed a U shaped metal prong thing that went into little holes either side of the head unit. That released the little sprung tabs that hold the head unit into a metal cage thing in the dash. Slide the old one out, swap the wires to the new one and slide the new one in.

Newer head unit (I'm thinking of the ones in my last few VW/Seat/Skoda cars) you have to pop a bit of plastic dash trim off (carefully) around the head unit. Then undo 4 Torx bolts that hold the head unit into the dash and same procedure. Slide out, swap the wiring, slide in.

If you're replacing a factory Nissan head unit with an aftermarket Kenwood head unit (for example) there's often plug kits available to make the wire connections easier for you. Avoiding cutting and crimping wires.

theconrodkid - 6/7/21 at 03:37 PM

Tis a hyuadai, i can pull the trim around 25mm from the dash but the wires wont allow it to come any further, and i cant unclip the wires as there is not enough room to get to said clips, looks like a chainsaw job afterall

nick205 - 6/7/21 at 04:12 PM

Get yourself a new phone andget your musicon MP3 on the phone - save yourself the grief of butchering the car.

indykid - 6/7/21 at 06:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
Tis a hyuadai, i can pull the trim around 25mm from the dash but the wires wont allow it to come any further, and i cant unclip the wires as there is not enough room to get to said clips, looks like a chainsaw job afterall


A hyundai what? Have you looked for a tutorial on youtube? Try getting your hand up the back of the dash to see if you can shuffle the loom. As an example, Corsa Bs used to have to get their aerial connectors fitted up the back once the headunit was in because the cable was too short so don't assume they'll necessarily make it easy (I was a time served Halfords audio fitter yoof for my sins in the early 2000s).

If you want to talk about obsolete formats, try minidisc. I have a double din minidisc/cd headunit that came with my first mx5 and I went halves on one with my brother for our cavalier. I loved my minidiscman when I was at school but then mp3 came along and killed it dead, even when the storage was miniscule and you had to pirate your files on kazaa and limewire....

theconrodkid - 7/7/21 at 06:31 AM

it,s a i 20, i looked at you tube first, theirs all come out no bother, i cant get up behind the dash, taking the glove box out all i find is the heater box

motorcycle_mayhem - 7/7/21 at 08:43 AM

I can't help, but I've found this thread rather amusing.
I too live in the age of the OP. My 'new' Transhit is 2002 - yes, I've broken through into the new registration format. It's got a Ford badged CD player, player, player, player (but it hasn't got leather seats). It works too, but not so well on the move. I'm now looking at the pile of audio tape the same way that someone was looking at their CD's.
I do still buy CD's by the way... yep... I know.

steve m - 7/7/21 at 06:42 PM

Conrod m8, have you thought about fitting ones of these ?

https://bestride.com/news/entertainment/8-vintage-car-audio-features