Car CD doesn't play.

[micky]

The CD player in my car worked well 2 months ago but last week I just got Track Search, or Error, something like that.

Changed CD, same problem

Rest of radio works well.

Bought a Maxell CD cleaner. Amazingly, it looks like a CD but has two little brushes on it.

It's supposed to give audio instructions when you "play" it. How can it do this if the laser or receiver lens is too dirty to work?

At any rate, I ran it 4 or 5 times and it doesn't say anything.

Is that enough evidence to firmly conclude it's broken and cleaning won't help?

The Maxell CD was 6 dollars, and got high Amazon ratings.

stars on 5700 ratings.

They sell two others, Memorex and Optimum, for 10 and 14 dollars, also with high ratings. But isn't buying one of them throwing good money after bad?

[Clare Snyder]

All the cleaner disc does is brush dust off the laser lens. Sometimes that's all it takes - but often the lens is fogged. Id=f one brand didn't work, nor will any other. Some of the lens material is just like your headlight lens and "yellows" over time. Time for a new stereo

[rbowman]

Yes. CD players are better than cassettes but they are still mechanical. I've disassembled one after a cleaning disc didn't work and found the problem was in the mechanism that positions the laser head.

I think the current car does have a CD player but I use MP3s from a USB stick or Bluetooth from the phone for variety. Non-moving parts don't skip on rough roads.

[trader_4]

The vacuum line to the radio is leaking.

[Anonymous]

No that's old school...his bottle of laser fluid needs refilled ;-)

[Retirednoguilt]

Best solution: Time to get a new car.

[Hal Bundy]

Grab an 8-track from ebay and swap it out.

[invalid unparseable]

CD player is just emulating it's owner who has been off track for a long time.

[gfretwell]

Throw it away and get an MP3 player. This is the 21st century. Playing music off of little pieces of plastic is medieval.

[Tekkie©]

On Sun, 11 Apr 2021 06:16:45 -0700 (PDT), trader_4 posted for all of us to digest...

Nah, it's the AC condensate drain it's not washing the lens off as it should.

[Tekkie©]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 22:14:54 -0400, micky posted for all of us to digest...

You have several choices: don't get it fixed and live with it. Send it to a car radio repair shop and pay big bux. Get one from a junkyard and swap it. Do as other posters have suggested and use memory stick or like. Get a portable CD player and plug it in.

[Cydrome Leader]

For an automtive CD player, yes. It's dead, move on. If you can get the thing out of the dashboard and take it apart, you might have a chance, but if it just died a sudden death, it's probably not work fussing with.