I just bought a 99 Concorde.
It's a sweet car, but the stereo is messed up.


It worked fine 3 days ago, now all of a sudden if I put in a CD it just makes a strange scratching noise for about 2 minutes, then will just start playing the CD wherever it wants.
If you try to move to another song, you have to listen to scratching for another 2 minutes.

Most CDs don't play at all.

The CDs that come out of it are not scratched up at all.
Just for the hell of it I blew some compressed air in there to get rid of any dust, but that didn't work.



Any ideas what to do?

The laser in CD players can drift out of alignment... because it plays in some random spot, it sounds like maybe thats what happened. You could send it in to get the tracking fixed, but it's more than likely going to cost more than its worth...

Good replacement headunits can be had for $200, a repair service costs usually $60 for the estimate, so I'm guessing $100 for the repair. If it's a factory headunit I'd say its not worth fixing.

You could buy a factory unit on ebay, for less usually.

Get a decent aftermarket headunit, some new speakers, and a modestly powered amplifier... you'll be alot happier overall.

Your factory cd player needs service, put that money towards a new aftermarket radio.

Shit,  

That's what I was afraid of.

Quoted: Shit,   That's what I was afraid of.

eh, it's not a big deal.  as said above, aftermarket units don't cost much, and it will be better than what came with the car.

just go to best buy, buy the cheapest pioneer unit they have, an install kit, and a wire harness.  you can probably get all of that for less than $150.  installation is easy...  the hardest part will be getting your factory unit out.  google can help you find out how to do it...

Post in the car and bike section, the mod over there owns a car stereo shop.

On some car models, taking the HU apart and cleaning the laser with rubbing alcohol can help.  If you're going to toss the factory radio anyway, maybe give it a shot first.

Is there a reset button on that thing or you could try disconnecting the battery, otherwise sounds like you need a new head unit.

Quoted: On some car models, taking the HU apart and cleaning the laser with rubbing alcohol can help.  If you're going to toss the factory radio anyway, maybe give it a shot first.

+1

Besides you get to take stuff apart and try to put it back together.  
Otherwise:  Tannerite

About a year ago, I paid ~ $120 for an in-dash AM/FM/CD/MP3/WMA player INSTALLED, including the dash-kit.

Fuck fixing it, just replace it with something nicer.