Hello! I have a 1996 Ford Explorer that I purchased used. It has the cd changer in the console between the front seats. The cartridge for the changer was missing when the vehicle was purchased. I've figured out what cartridge I need to purchase, but I'm not sure if the rest of the cd changer is intact and working. If I look inside the area where the cartridge goes, and look towards the rear of the vehicle - underneath the back part of the sliding door on the changer - is that area supposed to be pretty much empty air? Or is that area supposed to contain various parts that are part of the changer? Hopefully this makes some sort of sense. I don't know how to explain the area I'm talking about any better, so hopefully somebody will understand this.

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide me!

P.S. BTW, when I tell the audio system in the dash to go to cd mode it flashes "NO CD". Does that bear any relevance towards figuring out whether or not the cd player/changer is still intact, except for the missing cartridge?

 

Well...try to find a friend who has a '95-'97 Ford vehicle with the factory changer that looks exactly the same and ask them to borrow his cartridge to see if it works. Any Ford vehicle works, it doesn't have to be an Explorer.

About the "NO CD" message, of course it'll show that message. LOL. The changer couldn't find the cartridge so that's why it shows that message. If the changer isn't in tact, a message "NO DJ" will show. If you don't believe me, go in the center console and pull the tissue holder out and pull the plug. I hope this answers your question.

 

Best bet is as said above find someone who has one and try it. But yes it will look somewhat empty towards the back that is where the CD goes to start playing so there has to be room for the CD and carrier to go into.

 

Ok, thanks for the info. Thanks for the info about the "NO DJ" message as well. I thought maybe it was possible that the "NO CD" message was a generic message that showed whenever there was a problem ranging from a missing cd to a malfunctioning cd changer. So at least now I know that it is recognizing the cd changer is there.

 

jessman,

make sure the groove on the back of the cartridge is correct. what i mean is, after i bought my 97, i wanted an extra cartridge so i would have to mess with switching the cd's out. went to a local audio place (can't remember the name, it was in austin), and the guy there said that clarion made the changers. however, ford being ford, they made the groove on the back of the cartridge different. if you hold up the cartridge with the little window that has the numbers on it up, and follow the groove down, it goes in one dirrection near the bottom on the ford cartridge and it goes the other way on the clarion cartridge. i was told i would have to pay the $$$ for an extra one from ford. after that, i decided it wasn't worth it.

 

Well, I purchased a cartridge for the changer. The cartridge was manufactured by Clarion - their part number is CAA-122. I was told that it is identical to the OEM cartridges from Ford. It fits perfectly, but, alas, the changer refuses to recognize any cds. The changer will pull the cd in without a problem and then I can hear it spinning up, or trying to spin up, then a few seconds later it flashes "NO CD" on the display and refuses to do anything else. Pressing the eject button does nothing with the power still on. If I press the eject button with the power on, then cut the power, then turn the power back on it will then eject the cartridge on its own once the power is restored.

I've been doing a few searches online once this happened - should have done that before I bought the cartridge! - and am seeing that this is apparently quite a common problem with the cd changes from these Explorers.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what the problem might be, whether there's anything I can try to fix it, or if I should just give up now?

Thanks!

 

Don't have any ideas how to fix it but am aware that the aftermarket holders will not work properly in the changer. A friend bought one from clarion that says it will match the Ford but after a couple of plays he went to eject it and it jammed in the changer. Had to take the whole changer in to have the cartrige removed.

 

Prior to my last post I had tried running a cd cleaner through it. I thought maybe the laser was dirty and that was why it wasn't recognizing the cds. I ran it through several times, but it didn't seem to do any good.

Last night I started thinking about it and thought maybe it was so dirty that a couple of times with the cleaner wasn't sufficient fully clean it. Especially because it would only spin the cleaner disc for maybe 2 seconds before it stopped and flashed "NO CD". So I ran the cleaner disc through again...and again...and again...close to 20 times I think. Finally it started recognizing the cd! It now places store-bought cds, but it will not play burned cds. I'm thinking I may have to try burning them at a slower speed and maybe that will help. Either way though, I'm just glad it is working now!

 

As I understand it, neither the in dash stock Ford CD player nor the stock changer were designed to play burned CDR's(at least prior to 2000), so this may be as good as it gets for you (store bought CD's only). I added an aftermarket changer that plays through the Ford head unit, just so I could play CDR's. Could have opted for one that plays MP3's also, but didn't. I dont believe changing burn speed will make any difference at all, except to make burning a long slow process.

 

my ford changer in a 1997 f150 plays cdr's fine. the only cd players i have had no luck playing cdr's with are the older sonys. they wont read the disc.

john

 

I read on some other site that somebody with an Explorer (95, 96, 97 - one of those years, I don't remember which one now) was only able to play CD-Rs in his changer if they were burned at 16x or slower. I'm not sure I understand the logic behind that, but I figure it doesn't hurt anything to try it. I'll repost once I know whether or not it works.

 

Hey I have a 96 Explorer and have no problems with CD-Rs at all. Burned slow, fast, it doesn't matter. CD-RWs on the other hand are a whole different format so they do not work.

 

I have a 97 mountaineer with the 6 disc changer and it has no problems with CD-R discs. It's all I use in either the car or truck.

A few things I have found in my CD-R (and MP-3, which I also have in the car) travels. Many older players (and I have a 1986 SONY player here at home that also plays CD-R discs just fine) have issues with some of the colors of some newer funky discs. It all comes down to the reflectivity of the surface so I have found best compatability amongst my players using a very plain CD-R nothing in the colored plastics. For what ever reason I also found that discs with a slightly greener working surface (like TDK and FujiFilm) seem to do better than those that have a more blueish tint to them (SONY comes to mind). I'm not sure what the deal is with that, but I have noticed and empirical difference.

Along those lines, this is also why some older players (my old SONY for example) can not handle CD-RW discs. The surface on them is not as reflective as a CD or CD-RW and requires a higher power laser to read them. All new players can handle them, but for the older ones it is a no-no.

Also, I have been told many a time that for making audio CDs you are best burning them at 8x or slower for good compatability. I have read that this is because the alignment of where the data gets written on the disc can be very critical to older players which do not have as much of a track adjustment ability as newer units.

Next, CD-R discs burned in a CD-R only burner seem to also work better. This information stems from when I was trying to locate a good DVD+-R/W writer and wanted to create some discs for my home player. In doing the research I learned that a DVD and CD are burned slightly differently (laser focus, track spacing, etc) and that DVD burners are optimized for DVD and trade off a little in the CD department. With modern players this does not matter, but the older more picky players might have issues.

So, if you have a choice... use decent CD-R media, stay away from colored plastics, use a CD-R burner (not a DVD/CD burner) and keep the speed under 8x.

As a final note I also found that for some reason using Nero software for my old 86 SONY player resulted in a CD-R where the music seemed to be offset from the index (i.e. you hit the ">>" button and what you got was 5 or 6 seconds into the song). I then burned the same disc with Adaptec's software and it worked fine. So that is what I use.

Diung it this way all my players (1986 single disc SONY, 1995 5 disc SONY ES, Kenwood Z919 and the 6 disc in my Mountaineer) have no issues with the discs that I make... and I like it that way as thieves do not usually go after a pile of CD-Rs like they do the originals that I copy them from (which I own all of).

 

K2JJB, thanks for the wealth of information. Most of my CD-Rs are Imation's, and they do have a greenish working surface. I've never bought any of the colored CD-Rs, so I don't have to worry about that! I am using a DVD burner though. It's the only burner I have in my computer unfortunately. I think I have a CD burner kicking around the house somewhere, so I'll have to hunt that down and see if it still works. That is, assuming that burning in the DVD burner at a slower speed doesn't work - I'll try that first.

 

I have a '97 X with the OEM CD changer. I have had no problems running CD-R's. I use TDK disks ( bought from costco) and burn them at 24X using a DVD burner.