For the 3rd time in 13 years the OEM Ford 6-CD player-radio unit in our F350 jammed and would not play or eject CDs.

There are other 6-CD-radio posts on the ford-trucks website but they mention other techniques to resolve the issue of a NONOP or balky CD unit ( e.g. strategically rap/hit hit the faceplate, insert a small flat-head screwdriver into CD slot and jiggle the trays, remove from dash and open the player case and inspect it, etc.

Symptoms in our case were - radio worked fine but upon CD selection attempts, displays "CD Error" message with any attempt to select/eject/play a CD. This condition often happened after the vehicle batteries died due to lights being left on or other "drain to zero."

We found there was no need to open the case in one situation - the simple and normal flexing the case while removing it from the dash with Ford type "double DIN" tools caused the CD mechanism to suddenly come back to life and spit out CDs for reloading. Another time after being jammed, on a very hot day the unit started spontaneously spitting out CDs after the truck was started

In the 3nd situation (just occurred, cool day) we found if the CD-radio unit was simply removed from the dash (using the Ford double DIN removal tools) and rear corner power/speaker wire block connector was removed (depress bottom locking tab as you remove it) for 1/2 minute to a minute, and then reinserted, the CD-radio unit would reset itself mechanically (the trays can be heard to cycle internally over prolonged interval (1/2 to a minute?)) and the CD player would determine the loaded & empty slots and resume normal display indications and play/eject operations.

Before you open the case or buy a replacement for your CD-radio unit, 1st try removing/"resetting" it as described above. Again, the simple act of removing the unit may flex the case just enough to restore operations as it did years ago, for us.

The OEM units used in the early 2000 Super Duty trucks were sourced from Panasonic and Clarion. Owner consensus was the Panasonic unit was the better of the two but they both had mechanical jamming issues.

Good luck with your "near-vintage" Super Duty truck and OEM 6-CD Player-radio!