No tunes in the car makes for a quiet commute or a deadly-dull roadtrip. When the CD player stops working, the natural tendency is to fret a costly repair while the sound of cash register bells jingles in your head. Don't worry. Before you head to the repair shop for an estimate on your car stereo, try these troubleshooting steps to diagnose and possibly fix the problem yourself.
Narrow the Problem
Narrow the problem to a specific area. You can quickly determine if the radio works but not the CD player, or if one set of stereo speakers will produce sound but the other pair is silent. Once you've isolated the problem, you can save time and concentrate on a solution. Quick remedies include checking the balance and fade controls on the CD player to determine if some speakers are working but not others. If the CD player will not turn on and no light appears on the control panel, pop the hood of your car and check the power cable attached to the positive terminal of the battery for a secure connection. Also check the fuse box in the power cable to see if the glass fuse inside is blown.
Check the Wiring
If you are not getting any sound, use an electric meter available from electronics stores such as Radio Shack to check current flow through the speaker wires. Unscrew or snap off the grille covers for your speakers, then unscrew the speakers themselves from the mounting. Attach the alligator clips to the speaker wires. If you get a reading, you probably have a blown speaker, since current is getting through but the speaker produces no sound. If there is no reading on the meter, you may have a broken or disconnected speaker wire somewhere along the line. The easiest solution is to run new speaker wire rather than try to locate and repair broken wire.
Also use the meter to check the connections to any separate components, including power amplifiers (usually installed under the driver's seat) and subwoofers.
Troubleshooting CD Playback
Check the wiring harness for a secure connection to the back of the CD player using a flashlight to look under the dashboard. If the harness is secure and all other connections appear to be working, disconnect the positive cable from the car battery for at least 10 minutes, which will cause the CD player to revert to the factory presets. This may solve playback problems, although you will need to reset your FM stations and the clock.
Solve "disc error" messages by cleaning the CD player with a laser lens-cleaning product. These are shaped like a CD with a tiny brush on one side that sweeps the laser lens clean of dist and lint, which can accumulate rapidly in an automobile. For adding cleaning power, place a drop of rubbing alcohol on the brush. Allow the alcohol to evaporate completely before attempting to play a CD.
You can also clean and buff your CDs with a lint-free cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol to remove fingerprints, smudges and dirt.
Tags: harness secure, power cable, rubbing alcohol, secure connection, speaker wire, speaker wires