6 disc changer "no discs"

[Simon Exige S]

Just bought a 2001 touring with 6 disc changer but the head unit displays "no discs" after trying to switch to CD. Changer makes all the right noises and I have checked connections etc. Could it just need a clean??? (If so how to clean a miltichanger?)

[dcb]

Simon Exige S said:

Just bought a 2001 touring with 6 disc changer but the head unit displays "no discs" after trying to switch to CD. Changer makes all the right noises and I have checked connections etc. Could it just need a clean??? (If so how to clean a miltichanger?)

If all else fails get your household vacuum cleaner out.

I've had CD units die on me in the past.

One minutes worth of vacuum cleaner has fixed them.

[david87M3]

could be dust on the laser. try getting one of those Cd lens cleaner discs
Also if the laser is worn due to lots of use cleaning it wont help.
I fixed mine by replacing the laser, I dont reccomend going down this route unless your very handy with a soldering iron

[dazren]

Hit the side of the CD player. Seriously.

Or remove the cartridge and insert with a bit more force than normal.

[Onetone]

Might be a silly question, but, are you using original disks or ones that you have 'copied' for the car so that you can keep the originals in the house. If so, some 'older' units are not very good at playing certain types of CD - try the originals - if still showing no disk, try a cleaning disk - if still no joy, a new unit (circa 200 bones) is probably required.

Edited by Onetone on Monday 26th February 16:56

[CommanderJameson]

Onetone said:

Might be a silly question, but, are you using original disks or ones that you have 'copied' for the car so that you can keep the originals in the house. If so, some 'older' units are not very good at playing certain types of CD - try the originals - if still showing no disk, try a cleaning disk - if still no joy, a new unit (circa 200 bones) is probably required.

Edited by Onetone on Monday 26th February 16:56

The BMW Business changer in Mrs CJ's E36 is absolutely hopeless at playing home-made audio CDs - once it finds its bearings on the disc it's OK (although track-to-track skip can be a bit iffy), but getting to that point has been observed to take 30 minutes!

Edited by CommanderJameson on Monday 26th February 17:17

[david87M3]

thats because the laser is getting weak

Cd players read discs by shining a beam at dics and read back what they see.

Some Cheap Cd's are so poor you can see through them... Hold a Cd up to light and then compare it to a Cd you can record onto (cdr) you will see what I mean

The Cd players I repair at work always start fo fail with CDr dics thats how we know the lasers on its way out

[Simon Exige S]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Will try various cleaning methods and let you know. All discs are original, but hopefully a good clean will suffice as the car has not been used for around 8 weeks!!

[toastboy]

I might be stating the obvious but you do have the discs in the right way round don't you?

I've filled up the cassette a couple of times now only to have to flip all the discs round when I realised they weren't working.