"When upon the Acura dash there arose such a clatter..."
Started getting some weirdness loading discs a few weeks ago; clattering sounds and not fully accepting discs so I stopped trying to load them. Better to just listen to what's already loaded. This was okay for a while and then my wife mentioned wanting to load up Christmas CDs and couldn't do so. By now the changer was sounding like a garbage disposal, cycling through all the slots (or trying to) every time one started the car. Okay time for action.
So I started searching on eBay and found that these Acura head unit/changers are now cheap and plentiful. What used to go for $300 can be had for less than $75. I was a few in the $50 range and bookmarked one @ $48. Within a couple hours they sent me an offer of $38! With free shipping! Okay I'm in, so I clicked Buy It Now and plotted to do the deed on the following (last ) weekend. The box arrived 3 days later and upon opening it I saw the same mistake when I bought one a few years ago. If you don't pack it properly, the plastic faceplate mounting ears would get broken off as the heavy head unit/changer is like a bowling ball when shipped. I sent them photos and they wanted to refund $30; I told them they'd given me an incredible price, if I can use the changer I'd be satisfied.
Started psyching myself up to take the center dash and console apart after lunch. There would also need to be some bench time to separate and swap the changer from the radio/cassette unit it is married to. Fortunately the unit that arrived provided the opportunity to practice ahead of time. Two screws (hidden under black tape) caused me to break that radio's face (that I wouldn't need) and relegate to the parts shelf. Once our unit was removed, I put it on my desk to perform the separation. Based on the noises the changer was making, I figured the discs inside were goners. Nonetheless, I made a tool out of a paperclip to retrieve them. My DVD-R copies of Hotel California, Blow By Blow and Sea Change gradually came out of the changer with some patience. Sea Change looked really rough with a huge inch wide scuff across it from this wild ride. My wife's Best of The Doobie Brothers (2 CDs) discs were more difficult to remove but amazingly had no scratches on them! Whew. I think at least two discs were shoved together in a single slot and that caused the failure to perform.
So now the decision; which 6 disc changer to use? The existing changer screwed up and while it looked intact, it must have a flaw somewhere I cannot see. We will go with the changer that just arrived and set about marrying it and the radio back together. The practice the day before paid off. Knowing where all of the screws were allowed the face to come off intact and split the units; now I was just reversing how they went back together. The trickiest part was the wafer thin flat PC-type ribbon cable that connected them electronically. With that in place, I crossed my fingers that I'd made the right decision. Once assembled, I approached the dash and plugged everything in.
Then, as with many vehicles built in this era, I realized that I needed to enter a 5 digit code to make the unit active once again. Amazingly I remembered the code from several years ago (battery swap or similar requires code reset) and the unit came to life. I pressed the Load button and grabbed one of the DVD-R discs. It accepted the disc and made the right loading noises and played. Whew. [the changer is a marvel to do so much in such a small space] Then I loaded 3 Christmas CDs as requested; each was accepted and started playing. Hooray, let's bolt everything back into place before it gets dark when it's Happy Hour.
Total time about 3.5 hours; an hour in the car taking things apart, an hour of bench surgery and an hour putting it all back together. Total investment; $38!
Started getting some weirdness loading discs a few weeks ago; clattering sounds and not fully accepting discs so I stopped trying to load them. Better to just listen to what's already loaded. This was okay for a while and then my wife mentioned wanting to load up Christmas CDs and couldn't do so. By now the changer was sounding like a garbage disposal, cycling through all the slots (or trying to) every time one started the car. Okay time for action.
So I started searching on eBay and found that these Acura head unit/changers are now cheap and plentiful. What used to go for $300 can be had for less than $75. I was a few in the $50 range and bookmarked one @ $48. Within a couple hours they sent me an offer of $38! With free shipping! Okay I'm in, so I clicked Buy It Now and plotted to do the deed on the following (last ) weekend. The box arrived 3 days later and upon opening it I saw the same mistake when I bought one a few years ago. If you don't pack it properly, the plastic faceplate mounting ears would get broken off as the heavy head unit/changer is like a bowling ball when shipped. I sent them photos and they wanted to refund $30; I told them they'd given me an incredible price, if I can use the changer I'd be satisfied.
Started psyching myself up to take the center dash and console apart after lunch. There would also need to be some bench time to separate and swap the changer from the radio/cassette unit it is married to. Fortunately the unit that arrived provided the opportunity to practice ahead of time. Two screws (hidden under black tape) caused me to break that radio's face (that I wouldn't need) and relegate to the parts shelf. Once our unit was removed, I put it on my desk to perform the separation. Based on the noises the changer was making, I figured the discs inside were goners. Nonetheless, I made a tool out of a paperclip to retrieve them. My DVD-R copies of Hotel California, Blow By Blow and Sea Change gradually came out of the changer with some patience. Sea Change looked really rough with a huge inch wide scuff across it from this wild ride. My wife's Best of The Doobie Brothers (2 CDs) discs were more difficult to remove but amazingly had no scratches on them! Whew. I think at least two discs were shoved together in a single slot and that caused the failure to perform.
So now the decision; which 6 disc changer to use? The existing changer screwed up and while it looked intact, it must have a flaw somewhere I cannot see. We will go with the changer that just arrived and set about marrying it and the radio back together. The practice the day before paid off. Knowing where all of the screws were allowed the face to come off intact and split the units; now I was just reversing how they went back together. The trickiest part was the wafer thin flat PC-type ribbon cable that connected them electronically. With that in place, I crossed my fingers that I'd made the right decision. Once assembled, I approached the dash and plugged everything in.
Then, as with many vehicles built in this era, I realized that I needed to enter a 5 digit code to make the unit active once again. Amazingly I remembered the code from several years ago (battery swap or similar requires code reset) and the unit came to life. I pressed the Load button and grabbed one of the DVD-R discs. It accepted the disc and made the right loading noises and played. Whew. [the changer is a marvel to do so much in such a small space] Then I loaded 3 Christmas CDs as requested; each was accepted and started playing. Hooray, let's bolt everything back into place before it gets dark when it's Happy Hour.
Total time about 3.5 hours; an hour in the car taking things apart, an hour of bench surgery and an hour putting it all back together. Total investment; $38!
