Broken Jetta CD Player

October 3, 2005 9:37 PM

i innocently inserted a CD Laser-Lens Cleaner-type thing into the slot-loading CD player of my '99.5 VW Jetta. It was playing ~60% of CDs inserted into it, but now plays 0%. Is there a remedy, or is iPod my only hope?
posted by brock to Technology (6 answers total)

95? Dead see if you can get a direct line in installed for your iPod. Even if they have to buy the necessary equipment it'll be as much as a low-end cd player.
posted by geoff. at 9:48 PM on October 3, 2005

To me it seems like the only remedy would be to pull the stereo out of the car and take it apart, to check up on the CD player. I have fixed computer CDs simply by cleaning off the laser optics. There is supposedly a pot. near a lot of CD read heads that can be used to slightly up the power of the laser which fixes some older units, too, but I've never tried that and can't vouch for it.

That is all a royal PITA, of course. If you are well off, just buy a new one.
posted by teece at 12:51 AM on October 4, 2005

Note to everyone - those cd laser-lens cleaners are pretty dangerous. If your CD player's lens needs cleaning, the best way is to take the lid off it and have at it with a cotton bud and alcohol.
posted by cogat at 5:06 AM on October 4, 2005

I had this same problem with my 99.5 Jetta. I tried taking it apart to clean it, but to no avail. The best I could determine, the discs were not fully loading, so something had sprung with that mechanism. Not wanting to shell out a couple of hundred bucks, I just bought a converter kit for my iPod to pay through my tape player. Not sure how helpful this is, but if my experience is any guide, you player is probably toast.
posted by trox at 6:32 AM on October 4, 2005

cogat - does it matter what kind of alcohol (methanol, isopropyl, ethanol, &c)? I remember cleaning glass sequencing plates and certain alcohols would distort the laser/fluorescence...
posted by PurplePorpoise at 3:20 PM on October 4, 2005

Since PurplePorpoise hasn't had an answer, I can't comment on the alcohol types except to say nobody has ever recommended anything but isopropyl alcohol for cleaning electonics.
That said, when I did chem at uni I was interested in discovering what this amazing property for electronics cleaning comes from, and I now believe it is the only alcohol available fairly purely in the USA (i.e. it isn't mixed with water) so I suspect pure methylated spirits would be equally useful.
posted by bystander at 5:28 AM on December 2, 2005