My 2004 Excursion EB has been exposed to some extremely dusty roads. I'm talking about dust as fine as powdered sugar. This is in an area of dry lake beds in Eastern Oregon/N. Nevada and the dust is like nothing I've seen anywhere else. I've got about 50 miles of rugged, dusty, dirt roads between my ranch (we're mostly running rocks, sagebrush and jackrabbits on the "spread" these days) and the nearest pavement. Forget about tires, I'm running the heaviest tires Les Schwabb can fit on it. M55 Toyos and I've never had a flat, after I had four flats in two weeks with OEM tires.

After a 6 years of driving and more than 30k miles of this (out of 125k on the odo), my cd player and the dvd players say "disk read error". They load and eject just fine, I can hear the disks turning, and the radio works great. I really don't know how long its been doing this because I listen to sattelite radio, never CD's and the dvd player has been used once, right after I bought it in 2005. Everything, DVD, CD checked out fine when it was new.

I tried blowing them out, running a "cleaner disk" and nothing works. I am about ready to replace them both. Don't ask me why. Suffice it to say I now have a driving partner whose entertainment requirements are a little more refined than mine. I've tried blowing them out, a disk cleaner, still doesn't work. I've ordered the removal tools for the radio ($3) and will pull it out and open it up to see if the laser is covered in dust. If it is, I'll clean it and if that works, I'll do the same for the DVD player. Am I wasting my time? Any ideas?

 

ok.I pulled the radio and the cd player is probably shot. after cleaning it only reads the first coiple of tracks then the error message. I wonder if anyone can tell me what the model number means. I found a used on that is 4C7T-18C815-CA, mine is a 3C7T-18C815-AC. I know the first number is the year and the one I'm thinking about buying has the exact mounting, plugs, etc. What is the difference between a AC and a CA?

Thanks

 

You could order these instructions and try to fix it yourself. Radio Repairs - including Blank Radio Display (Ford & Nissan Quest, Chrysler) Or you could send it off to these guys and have them fix it for you. Ford Stereo Repair

 

Alright, the radio is fine the cd player was shot. I found a company in Minnesota that sold me a brand new replacement 6cd player. 4 screws and a ribbon cable came off and the old cd player went out, then a ribbon cable reconnected, and 4 screws later it was as good as new. $150 including shipping. It took less than 1/2 hour from out of the truck to repaired and re-installed. Everybody else wanted over $250 to fix it or up to $400 for a refurbished unit. OEMRadios, ask for Matt. You'll just need to know your radio part numbe. Evidently, the 6cd players are more generic than the radios themselves, and no programming needed. On to the dvd player.

 

For a brand new replacement unit that's not bad at all. Best thing was it's available and easy to obtain!

 

Glad you got it fixed, thanks for letting us know.

 

DVD player is fixed. I took a chance and bought an untested used one on ebay delivered for $40. When I went to put it in, the plugs didn't match. Dang!! But, I decided with nothing to lose, I'd take it apart and see if I could rewire or switch the player portion but the two players were completely different. I did find two dvd's crammed into the new (ebay) one and removed them. Then, I noticed the little white plug on the player (it was a male and so is the one going to the screen on the console,) had a tag on it that said REV-A. I followed the 4" of wire to the player and it was plugged into a female plug. So, I just pulled it out and there was the connection for the small white male plug I needed. The only other thing I needed to do was trim about 2" of plastic from the plastic mounting bracket that is screwed into the console and I had the clearance I needed to get the other plug in. I tested it before I had all the mounting screws for the player and the console in, and IT WORKED!!! Doing all of this while trying to hold it all up in the air really requires more than two hands, but I managed. $40 and a little plastic ground off of things and I now have a working dvd player. Next project is new running board the factory ones have served as rock guard for the rocker panels and are looking pretty beat up. I've got a pair of Ionic' with brackets ($199 delivered) coming in next week.