Problem: Stock OEM radio and self-burned CDs.

When I purchased my Riv the radio was shot. I pulled it, but there was only so much I could do. The mechanicals were just warn out, so no tape and no CD player. A few days ago I installed a refirbished unit which seemed to work well except when I inserted a Music CD that I burned myself. The CD fed in okay, buzzed for about 5 seconds, then ejected. I tried this on 4 different 'Music' CDs. I know better than to expect the player to understand MP3s, but it should understand .cda files because that's the way all music CDs work.

Has anybody else had this problem? Is my unit defective, or am I using media (CD-R) that it can't read, or what? Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks.

-R

My stock radio plays my burned CD-R's with no problem. Does it play store bought CD's?

It's been so long since I've had a "store bought" CD, I don't know. I'll see if I can dig one up. In the mean time I must ask you what brand of media you use, and do you use special settings like a slow burn rate?

3-30-14: Just tried a pressed store bought CD and same thing. It feeds in, buzzes for 5 seconds, and ejects. Oh, and just noticed the tape deck only plays on the left side. Dirty head, maybe? The unit is definatly defective.

The ones I have are Verbatim CD-R's. Burned them with Nero. No special settings. Sounds like you have other problems. Find or borrow a store bought CD. It probably won't play either I think.

I think you're right, Larry. I just burned another disk at 1X, still no soap. This time I noticed an error code "E22" after it ejected. I think the unit is defective. I'm going to get my money back, but I don't relish the idea of tearing into the dash again to remove, and then again to replace it. Maybe I should just give up and look into an aftermarket radio. Not too many double dins that fit though. It's pretty shallow in there.

It's worth trying a lens cleaner if you know somebody who has one. It could just be covered in dust from storage/shipping. It's a special disc with tiny brushes on it. You put a little cleaning solution on it and put it in, it spins around and cleans the lens, then ejects because it's not readable of course... and voila! Has fixed many many car CD players for me over the years.

deekster_caddy wrote:

It's worth trying a lens cleaner if you know somebody who has one.

I didn't know such things were out there. It's worth a try. Thanks for the tip.

There is a new CD mech available for my radio, but it's $100. I think that would fix my little problem, but here's the deal: Even though this CD mech is new old stock, It's still $100. And at that price I could (1) buy whole other refurbished radio and take my chances, or I could (2) put that money toward a newer aftermarket head unit with way more features. I'd likely loose my steering wheel controls with option 2, not to mention that it would be a hassle putting in an aftermarket unit. Plus I know it just would never look quite right. The stock radio, despite its limitations, was designed for this car. It looks like it belongs there. Decisions, decisions. What would you do?

I would get a rebuilt unit from http://www.unitedradio.com/automotive/ - actually I am about to, as my radio's cassette player has quit (the CD player is already marginal) and some of the lights are burned out. Why them? they are not the cheapest but not the most expensive either; recommended to me by the parts counter guy at the GM dealer I get parts from (when I am not 2-stepping them from somewhere).

Albertj

You do not have to lose your steering wheel controls. Many aftermarket stereos allow for a remote input and you can get an adapter made by PAC that will interface with them. Look up "PAC SWI-X" to get started there. Those units can be a little finicky, but overall they work well.

I would go aftermarket instead of dumping more money into your stock unit, but since you're concerned about the looks of an aftermarket unit there are a few options. The first would be to get one of PACs integration kits. They have one that ties in line with the antenna and allows you to stream from your phone/iPod. You can choose to get one that uses your headphone jack or streams through Bluetooth. This keeps your stock looks and you don't have to worry about signal loss since it ties into the antenna rather than broadcasting to it.

The next option would be to get an aftermarket unit. If you go this route, get a nice (name brand) double din unit. You would be surprised at how well you can make some of these look. If you get one with a flat face you shouldn't have to worry too much about needing to trim your dash (you will still probably need to remove the black plastic piece behind the unit. This is something that you will never see, so that is OK.) I'm going to try fitting my old dash to see if he stock black trim will fit around it. Will try and get pictures up sometime.

As far as retaining your controls, PAC also has adapters to fit MOST aftermarket units. They can be finnicky, but if you program them with the car running you should be fine. The reason behind this is that the car puts out between 14-15 volts while running, and ~12 while not running. This slight change in voltage also changes the voltage sent through the steering wheel control wires, hence the reason you want to program it with the car running. Once I figured out this trick I had virtually no issues with my adapter.