CD Changer ate my CD's!!!

[Devil's Advocate]

My factory in-dash CD changer has eaten my CD's! There are four CD's in the changeer and when I hit "load" to put in the 5th the thing just made a whirring noise and refused to accept the disc.

Now NONE of the CD's will play or eject and all I see is a "CD ERROR" message on the Audio screen.

There still are little whirring noises and blinkings amber lights as if the unit was about to spit out the CD but nothing happens.

Has this happended to anyone else, if so how was it fixed. And if not how do I get out the changer so that I can hack it apart and get the discs out?

three of the discs belong to the local library so time is of the essence as the library will wants its cd's back!

[aaf709]

Did any of the CDs have paper labels? They've been know to come off and prevent ejection.

[efusco]

Only other reports like this that I've heard have basically been catastrophic...the entire player needed to be replaced and the CDs were not recoverable (which seems hard to believe since you should, at least, be able to disassemble the thing).

I hope you report back that that's wrong, but it's what I remember from a similar incident a few years ago.

[Devil's Advocate]

No paper labels. So that's not it.

I figure it is catastrophic and will require a full dissasembly to get the disks back. I'll prbably leave the gaping hole there and replace it with a DVD drive if that is the case.

[JHSmith]

Originally Posted by Devil's Advocate

My factory in-dash CD changer has eaten my CD's! There are four CD's in the changeer and when I hit "load" to put in the 5th the thing just made a whirring noise and refused to accept the disc.

Now NONE of the CD's will play or eject and all I see is a "CD ERROR" message on the Audio screen.

There still are little whirring noises and blinkings amber lights as if the unit was about to spit out the CD but nothing happens.

Has this happended to anyone else, if so how was it fixed. And if not how do I get out the changer so that I can hack it apart and get the discs out?

three of the discs belong to the local library so time is of the essence as the library will wants its cd's back!

2007 Camry Hybrid (Nav/4-CD changer <JBL>)--
Within 1 month had identical symptoms. They had to order new CD unit. Since it was brand new model (TCH), needed to get unit from Japan. Was back-ordered since all existing CD units were being installed in cars being manufactured. The dealership could not eject/remove CDs. "Factory" removed them and returned the CDs to the dealer. (Some were scratched sometime during the removal process.)

Fast forward to present time: Just finished a run from DC to Orlando. Listened to CDs on the way down. Found out after ~ 4 hours, the CDs would not cycle & could not eject. Once I arrived in Florida, next morning I checked, no problem! Driving back to DC, I noticed the storage bin under Radio/CD/Nav unit was hot. HMM, tried to eject CDs but only 1 would come out! And it was VERY hot.

After I got home, I did some testing. After playing for ~ 2 hours, the CDs start to heat up substantially, but I was able to eject them normally.

My investigation indicated that if playing CDs, they get hot and warp. This last time, after cooling down, I was lucky and able to eject them.
New player is on order. (Warranty.)

This has been long post & for a TCH, but it may apply to you.

[cnschult]

you can't just stick an aftermarket cd or Dvd player into the dash, can you?

doesn't it need custom programming for the information to show up on the prius touchscreen?

[Devil's Advocate]

Yhanks JH,
Iv'e tried to eject and change CDs several times, from just starting up to already warmed up. No go so far.

I think I'll be ripping the dash apart soon and removing the changer.
I hope it is a seperate unit from the radio so I can fashion a DVD replacement, because most likely no aftermarket unit will fit in the stock location.

Maybe I can put a mac mini in there. I've seen one person do it on PC so far. That would be cool.

[DaveinOlyWA]

i dont suppose it would have a manual eject button? problem is, one of the discs is jammed preventing the mechanism inside from moving. the mechanism senses the slightest drag and trips to prevent damage to the disc.

i would think that there would be a hole or something you insert a small pin in to manually turn a gear to move the mechanism. right now, the reason its not moving is because it would need some sort of reset.

if you turn off car, turn it back on, can you hear anything from the player or is the CD error immediate? usually if powering off will reset an error, the mechanism will attempt to move before retripping again

[nicholfd]

Originally Posted by cnschult

you can't just stick an aftermarket cd or Dvd player into the dash, can you?

doesn't it need custom programming for the information to show up on the prius touchscreen?

You CAN replace the factory radio, but it will not have any integration with the MFD. There are install kits that allow DIN "E" radios to fit.