I have a stock CD unit (with EQ) and it doesn't read CD-R and has trouble reading regular audio cds when the humidity is high (running the AC for a few minutes usually fixes the problem). I have used a CD cleaner but that hasn't helped that much. Anybody taken their apart to clean? Did it work?

They're easy to take apart. My unit wouldn't read CD-r'* unless burned under 4x. It skipped when you ran over a toothpick, and then it started making clicking noises and ejecting cd'* and not being able to access anything over track 7.

So, I went aftermarket.

Anyhow, if you're gonna take it out and attempt to fix it, I don't think it'* really worth it, cause these things have limited life spans, and pretty soon you'll be yanking it ever 2 or 3 months to clean it. Getting to the laser'* main lense is harder than all get out with a cotton swab, or any swab for that matter.

If you really, really want to keep your unit, find another one to replace it, or just replace the cd drive portion inside. It just plugs right in.

I dicked around with mine, got everything working again, except it still skips when you barely touch it, and it won't access anything over track 7, unless you're lucky. After I went aftermarket, I took the old radio/cd player apart for fun and put an fully functional auxillary input on it. It'* been sitting on my shelf ever since.

If you're really serious about this endeavor, I can post semi-detailed instructions.

Mine tracks and doesn't skip other than the humidity thing... I would be open to adding an aftermarked deck if I could find a nice 1.5 DIN that is amber and I could wire up my steering wheel controls. That would be great if you could post your info. I'm also curious how you wired an aux input into your deck as I would like to wire up an MP3 without having to use an fm modulator...

you can get the pioneer 1.5 din model change it to red(i did my pioneer headunit) and get the swi-x ot make it work with your steering wheel controls

To get my aux in, I tied into the CD bus. Unless you're comfortable soldering and messing around inside the unit, you prolly won't be able to get it to work :(

If you want to attempt to clean your deck, undo the front panel, held on by plastic clips. Then, unplug it and set it aside. Next, undo the largest two screws on the back of the unit, horizontal to each other. Then, there are two small gold hex screws, one on the top, and one of the right side, looking at the radio from the front. The top one almost lines up with the big screw on the back.

Slide the CD reader out, and unplut it. There you go, you can do what you can from here, and take screws off as you feel fit to get at what you want. Remember how it goes back together!

I'm not uncomfortable with soldering- I've replaced oscilators on computer motherboards to speed them up way back in the days of 'clock-chipping'. It sounds like it'* just a matter of knowing what wires to tap into. Thanks for the instructions- I might give it a try today (cleaning).

Thanks for the easy instructions. It took me less than an hour- and it would have taken less time if I had removed the cd from the deck BEFORE disassembling it . It works great! Even reads burned CDs- I could never get it to do that before..

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Did you clean the lens? How, and with what?

I followed your instructions to pull the drive unit out of the deck. The lense was accesible once I did that. There wasn't much room to poke around but I took a cotton swab, wrapped the tip with an eyeglass cleaner tissue (solvent that evaporates without leaving residue or lint) and wiped the lense and the readers several times. It was hard to see the lense even with good lighting but the tissue came off with some dirt on it so I know the cleaning was working. Put it back together and it worked.

That'* awesome. I haven't really heard of anyone that'* had that kinda success with our units. Good deal!