Hi,

The CD changer on my wife's car suddenly stopped working a week or so ago. The message "mechanic" appeared on the head unit display.

I finally got around to taking a proper look at it at lunchtime. After removing the whole unit and removing the cover (after checking with a dealer that the warranty had expired and it was therefore safe to tear the label!) I found that it had tried to put the CD it had been playing into the magazine slot where another CD already was. Hence it was jammed half in and half out.

I managed to extract the magazine without breaking it and removed the offending CD, which was a CDR (i.e. a copied CD) with a printed surface (not a sticky CD label).

Two questions - is this likely to start happening more and more frequently now as possibly the indexing of the deck position appeared to be at fault on this occasion? Could this get worse now? I have since reassembled it and cycled through the remaining CDs with no problems.

Second - is this likely to have been caused by the particular type of CD? Anyone got any experience of this?

Thanks,

Martin

I get these sorts of messages (but without the wrong-slotted CD) occasionally. They seem to associated with trying to change freebie CDs just as the car hits a certain size of bump.

Martin

How did you get the changer unit out? Mine has stopped working and after unscrewing the 2 brass nuts there seems to be something underneath it that's still holding it in.

All help gratefully received.

Scott

Mine wont play CDRs at all. never has!

Hulk, do you always use the same make of blank?

my changer is always playing up. i find i have to wait 10mins after ive inserted the magazine, to turn it on, otherwise none of the cd's play.

also i get the random 'mechanic' or 'surface' problems. its reliable if your mega careful with it. i.e. clean each cd and align it perfectly, then wait before turning the HU on after putting magazine in. and letting it change cd's by itself, as demanding a cd change doesnt always go down too well with it!

i think an alpine changer is in order. apparently you can buy a VW adapter that will allow it to work with the existing head unit and wiring.

anyone had a go?

Think you can get these adapters on ebay - seen them go for £20 before. Wish I wouldn't have forked out on a second hand changer from ebay (which skips when I first start playing anyway) and just bought an alpine changer and a cable... my only annoyance would be getting the alpine to bolt to the side of the car neatly like the original... without serious surgery

I only get "mechanic" or "surface" if I hit a bump the wrong way exactly when it's changing discs. I presume the vibration upsets the fetch mechanism, and think you'd only get an improvement with better anti-vibration mountings.

Hulk, do you always use the same make of blank?

No different makes. Some of the CDs are donkeys old some are new stuff. It was part of the reason i bought an Ipod so i could get new stuff to play in the car. I run it through the tape deck on the head unit.

Martin

How did you get the changer unit out? Mine has stopped working and after unscrewing the 2 brass nuts there seems to be something underneath it that's still holding it in.

All help gratefully received.

Scott

That would be the third nut then! If you loosen or remove the two screws on each side of the changer unit you can lift it out of the bracket and you'll see the bottom nut easier.

No different makes. Some of the CDs are donkeys old some are new stuff. It was part of the reason i bought an Ipod so i could get new stuff to play in the car. I run it through the tape deck on the head unit.

I was asking because it's not unknown for drives to have issues with one make and not others. Well, that's that ruled out then.