Greetings, I love this forum. Hopefully I will also be involved with the Excursion forum soon (however, I will not give up my Expedition and my wife has an Explorer).

I have a 2001 5.4L Expedition XLT 4x4 (I really do love this truck, but also looking for a 8,000 lb boat and need an Excursion). Recently, when I try to listen to the 6-disk CD player, I hit the "CD" button on the dash, and hear (and watch on the display) it cycle through the CD's in the center console and then it displays "Cassette Empty". It only cycles threw the CDs after I have taken the 6-disk cartridge out of the player, which I think is normal.

I have taken out the CD's and replaced them, just to see if that made a difference without any luck.

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be wrong. Maybe a fuse or something needing to be cleaned. I am mostly an AM talk show kind of guy, but early morning (and Sunday morning) drives up to the boat storage are filled with info-mercials that I don't care to listen.


Thanks for your help.
-Michael

 

Did you put the cd's in up side down ?

 

LOL!!!
That is a good question

I'll admit that I'm not the most intelijent person, but for a second I had to confirm that I did install them correct in the magazine.
I didn't think about it, because this had previously worked on my last long (200miles one way) road trip. I just confirmed that the Magazine is indicates to insert with label facing up, so the CDs are installed correctly.

Thank you for the response.. good question.

I did find that the error in the display indicates "Empty Mag". Need to change that in my original post's heading.

 

I found the following, and I will try purchasing a CD cleaner to address, and hopefully resolve, the problem.

"A common problem with CD players/changers when they fail to "read a disc" is poor focus at the laser. This can be caused by either a weak/defective laser or a cloudy/dirty lense assy. Before trashing the changer, try a good CD lense cleaner. It looks like a CD, and as the lense/laser assy moves back and forth "looking" for data, it cleans the lense. Sometimes it may take 4-5 passes. They are sold everywhere from Walmarts to A/V superstores like Best buy for between 5.00 to 15.00. Avg is about 8.00.
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The problem is with the changer itself, and is actually pretty common. There are a couple of micro switches that get sticky with age and the player wont load discs correctly. The fix is to remove it and have it repaired. Sometimes they fix it for under $100, sometimes you are better off replacing it.

 

I just started having that problem myself, only it quits reading the CD's. I'm gonna try the cleaner first, but have this sinking feeling it's broken.