Why Can't clean Cadillac CD player?

[CarlP]

My '95 Cad CD player is acting up. Won't play, ejects disc, when I
start the car. After waiting for quite a while, it then often will
play, almost like it was waiting for the player/radio to warm up. The
CD's play at home ok. I thought about cleaning the player, but after
buying a quality unit, it says on it not to use it on Cadillac players.


Any idea why, and/or what might be wrong with the player and how to fix
it?

[John Durbin]

CD cleaners are a scam at best... the only safe & effective way to clean
an optical pick-up is with clean cotton swab and appropriate non-residue
solvent that won't etch the lens material. Very gentle cleaning this way
is FAR preferable to putting a cleaner in and having it spin around and
whack the lens repeatedly. They're not made for contact sports.

I'd guess the people that make the kit you bought have some additional
issues related to their device getting jammed in Cadillac players that
prompted the warning... or maybe the Cadillac optical block is more
fragile, don't know but those cleaners blow anyway.

From your symptoms sounds like maybe the optical block is failing, or
possibly the spindle motor is dragging when it's cold, laser sled is
gummed up and doesn't move easily when cold, chip problems, etc. Nothing
you're likely to fix with a DIY cleaning kit. Time for professional
service...

JD

CarlP wrote:
> My '95 Cad CD player is acting up. Won't play, ejects disc, when I
> start the car. After waiting for quite a while, it then often will
> play, almost like it was waiting for the player/radio to warm up. The
> CD's play at home ok. I thought about cleaning the player, but after
> buying a quality unit, it says on it not to use it on Cadillac players.
>
>
> Any idea why, and/or what might be wrong with the player and how to fix
> it?
>

[CarlP]

JD, Assuming I can get easy access to the optical pickup to clean and
that doesn't fix it, with all those possibilities, I have no idea what
the cost potential could reach for repair. Would it make more sense
to just put a new unit in the dash?

Thanks for the quick excellent reply. Carl

[John Durbin]

Repair of the stock unit a lot cheaper than replacing it with another
stock unit... you can put a cheaper aftermarket deck in but don't expect
the build quality or AM/FM tuner to be as good as the OEM.

JD

CarlP wrote:
> JD, Assuming I can get easy access to the optical pickup to clean and
> that doesn't fix it, with all those possibilities, I have no idea what
> the cost potential could reach for repair. Would it make more sense
> to just put a new unit in the dash?
>
> Thanks for the quick excellent reply. Carl
>

[[email protected]]

John Durbin wrote:
> Repair of the stock unit a lot cheaper than replacing it with another
> stock unit... you can put a cheaper aftermarket deck in but don't expect
> the build quality or AM/FM tuner to be as good as the OEM.
>
> JD
>
> CarlP wrote:
> > JD, Assuming I can get easy access to the optical pickup to clean and
> > that doesn't fix it, with all those possibilities, I have no idea what
> > the cost potential could reach for repair. Would it make more sense
> > to just put a new unit in the dash?
> >
> > Thanks for the quick excellent reply. Carl
> >

I used to have a link to a place online that repaired OEM cd units for
a fair price. I couldn't find it though.