CD Player Has Eaten My CD! :rant:

The factory-fit, silver plastic-faced CD player in my 156 20v (facelift), accepted a CD as normal the other morning, worked fine for 30 seconds or so then refused to play it and then had the cheek to tell me there was 'NO CD' inside the damn machine.

The safety teeth are shut on the machine, the CD is still in there, it won't eject, refuses to play and is randomly 'spinning' a motor inside.

I removed the head unit out of the dash, disconnected it, removed the face, only to be met with a sealed unit, with so many complex spring loaded plastic switches and pulleys I beat a quick retreat and put everything back together the way I found it.

Radio works fine, all other functions work fine - it just refuses to play it, to spit the damn CD out or accept another one....

Is there an emergency eject or a way of extracting the CD before I get so bloody frustrated with it Or even worse, have to take it to a Alfa service centre for them to try and fix...


Can anyone help

Doesn't the metal top of the unit come off
after removing a few screws and
twisting a few metal prongs?

Yep, tried that Nev when I had the head unit out of the car.

CD was visible from top, but there was no way I could get to it, let alone remove it from its fixing spring base...

I believe your CD head unit is similar to the one fitted in my 147 (Blaupunkt 937 or yours: Alfa156HIGH) but just with a squarer front face plate to fit the different dash.

On removing the unit, the top cover does come off quite easily. Screws or no screws and held in by friction so it can be prised off. After carefully forcing your CD from the CD transport, I wouldn't bother trying to repair it as I had a similar problem with mine. You can either buy a new whole unit from Alfa(very expensive) or look on ebay where they go for quite a reasonable price. The route I took was to buy a 156 head unit and transfer just the CD transport across to replace the faulty one in my 147(it can be removed quite easily) being that a 147 version wasn't available on ebay at the time.

Yes, its the 156 HIGH unit

Do I really need to get a new one Is there no way to fix the existing unit

Am I covered by the 3rd year warranty on this unit

If I am I assume that I have to take it into the dealer.....I'll never see my CD again....

Anyone else got any ideas before I take mudan's advice

The warranty doesnt cover it

Alfa dealers (well any main dealers) wont open up head units for repair.

Its happened once or twice in the 147. A good slap to the side of it with the power on and the unit out the dash made it 'spew up' the disc.

Its not covered by the 3 year warranty either.

Have given it a few fair smacks already tbh...
Wish I could make her spew it back out....

Looks like I may have to email my dealer and ask the q before looking on ebay or buying a new head unit.

Anyone help me out

Is there not some very small pin sized switch somewhere on the front fascia, I had one on my old Blaupunkt machine which manually ejects the CD.

Also, if you can get to the CD inside the unit by taking a part or two off, try and find the lock mechanism. It is usually a catch which motors up and down to hold the CD in place. These can often be 'eased' out of the way!

I have managed to get stuck CDs out of Alpine, Blaupunkt and Sony CD players using a range of fiddling and poking, usually with the head unit out of the dash, but powered up.

Keep on poking, it should eventually spit it out.

Andy

UPDATE:-

Well I kept on 'poking' and got the CD out with a mixture of swearing, cursing, a screwdriver and a fair amount of force and double-jointed-ness.

Damn player now has the safety teeth closed, spins the motor constantly and refuses to accept another CD.

My dealer tells me also that all audio equipment is only covered for 1 year....

2 questions now.
Can it be repaired. If so how much do people think?

Also, what other head units have people fitted into the facelifted silver interior Any recommendations

Cheers peeps.

Why not check ebay for 2nd hand units if you want to stay original, otherwise I would say look for the best alpine you can afford if you want to go the aftermarket route.

Hope this may help someone. I'm on the 3rd Blaupunkt unit in our 04 156, the first two replaced under warranty. Recently it again took a cd then refused to play or eject it, just whirred away with the motor running any time it was turned on. This time I removed the unit, pulled all the plugs out, then reconnected them and powered up. Basic steps, I know, but after entering the code it cooperated and ejected, no problem. Temperamental little thing ain't it?