I've been the happy second owner of this wonderful car for about two months. Over the weekend, which took temperatures into the mid- to upper-90s, the CD changer jammed in that none of the discs will load, nor will the cartridge eject. If I turn the head unit on or if I push the cartridge eject button, I can hear a whirring or spinning but, after several minutes, the noise stops.

I'd appreciate any ideas as to how to approach this. Thanks.

Sorry about the last reply, but here goes I had the same problem a few days back, only do this if you are sure you can, Oh and plug the changer and remove it from the car.. What has happen is that you have two CD's jammed in the same slot or it wants to go into the same slot, take the CD changer apart and remove allt the casing look inside and there are two main gears and they move the CD's in and out of the magazine here you will turn the gears until you see the CD itself try to load in one of the openings once you see that or you can get it to go into one of the slots, you might be able to plug it back in and the magzine will eject,

If that doesn't work you might be able to see the CD so you can remove it from the holding rollers, make sure that your hands are clean to do this, I have tried it and it works just fine.. but if you don't feel comfortable take it to a severice tech and the can do it for you or find out what type that you have and give them a call.....good luck !

Midnightman's made a good guess, which has happened to me and I took the advice he gave. However, prior to dismantling the thing I'd unplug it, then give it ten minutes and re-attach it. Try the eject now. If no luck, it's dismantle time!

BTW, did it throw a code to the head unit (when you selected the changer as the input, did any fault display?)?

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Best regards, Michael
'92 500E
'88 300TE

Midnightman, Michael,

Thanks for your insightful suggestions. Initially, there was no "code" other than "CD 1", "Loading 8," etc. And the whirring in the changer.

Tonight, I unplugged all three cables going into the unit, left it unplugged for a while, then plugged everything back in. With the car turned off, as soon as I plugged the power cord back in, it just whirred, whirred, whirred. I went inside the car, turned the key to the accessory position, turned the radio on, switched to the CD mode, and got the message "CD M E". And the unit just wirred for at least 15 minutes. Finally, I just unplugged the power cable again because I was afraid it was going to keep going until it drained the battery.

I'm scheduled to take the car to one of Mercedesshop's sponsoring shops, Continental Imports, in Gainesville, Florida, for some other work. (You may have seen Stevebfl posts) I was hoping the unplug/plug trick would work, but since I'm going there anyway, I'm going to ask them to take a look at the changer and see about getting the thing "tuned up" by the experts. They are knowledgeable, honest, and I trust what they say. I'll let you know the results.

Brian


[This message has been edited by dfndr (edited 05-31-2000).]

Your code means CD Magazine Empty.

Good luck!

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Best regards, Michael
'92 500E
'88 300TE

Michael, Midnight,

Well, Continental works on radios but not CD changers due to the equipment needed to deal with the lasers and a couple of other things. So we're sending it to the factory for servicing. I appreciate the idea of taking the casing apart and unjamming it as you described, Midnight, but I decided against doing that for three reasons. One, we're preparing to move in the next month and so the timing isn't best; two, I figured the thing is 8 years old so an overall cleaning and adjustment was probably in order anyway; and three, I was a bit intimidated by looking at what I could see of the guts of the thing through that access panel on the right hand side.

At any rate, I now have a new error code ("E 2") and neither the radio nor the cassette work. If I push the power button to the head unit, the antenna comes up, nothing appears on the screen for a few moments, then the code appears, stays on for a few seconds, disappears, and then the antenna retracts.

At least when I had the CD changer attached but non-functional the other modes worked. Any ideas? Did I short something out? Is there someplace where a person can review what the codes mean?

Thanks for your help.

Brian

I spoke with Scott at Continental and he told me that the CD changer is, in essence, like those old-style Christmas mini-white lights, where if you take out one bulb (or one goes dead) the whole string doesn't work. (My analogy, not his; he gave a good technical explanation that I don't want to mis-relate.) He said if I would close the loop, I could get the radio and cassette to play pending the return of my CD unit.

Thought you'd be interested in what the answer to the latest issue was.

dfndr

There may be a factory "jumper" DIN-type plug available, for cars that are prewired for the CD but don't have a changer. This would be polarized so you couldn't short anything out. Just a thought.