CD does not work after replacing battery

[sandiegan]

My CD player on my 2004 T-Bird doesn't work since I replaced the battery a few weeks ago. Everything else has reset OK, the windows, the automatic steering column position setting all work perfectly. Only the CD player won't work
It comes up with "CD Error", or "Initializing", or "No CD" when in fact there are 6 cd's in the player.

Can anybody help. I got some great CD's in there and I really love my T-Bird

Bill Nesbitt

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[George]

Bill: Whoever did the battery replacement, take it back to them. Unless you did it yourself.

The only other suggestion I would have, is to disconnect the battery for 15-20 minutes, then reconnect it.
Sometimes this has corrected issues others have had, which none of us know why. 😕 Either way please keep us informed as others may benefit by your resolution.

 

[V8 Cat]

Bill: Whoever did the battery replacement, take it back to them. Unless you did it yourself.

The only other suggestion I would have, is to disconnect the battery for 15-20 minutes, then reconnect it.
Sometimes this has corrected issues others have had, which none of us know why. 😕 Either way please keep us informed as others may benefit by your resolution.

Bill,
This would also be my suggestion. Like George mentioned, we don't have a clue about why this works, but it does quite often. A Ford service technician suggested this to a friend with a 2003 a couple of years ago, and it worked for him. Let us know the outcome if you do it.

 

[George]

Some have reported heat problems. Was it hot that week? This owner said; "I left the CD changer overnight to cool down and in the morning it worked OK"

Another reported: "As a matter a fact, my CD player did the same thing when I returned from a day-long trip in the Tbird last weekend. I thought that I would eject the CD's and put them in my CD case. I pushed the eject button and the thing jammed! I got the "CD ERROR" message too. It was the CD slot #1 that I had tried to eject. I could see it jammed through the door to the CD changer, which was stuck in the open position.

My fix for the problem was that I took a pair of tweezers (I think that I'm going to keep them in my car in case this happens again) and gently pulled the stuck CD out through the opening. It worked!

I was then able to eject all of the other CD's. I did notice that the CD's were VERY hot and I think that could be the problem. None of the CD's had paper labels and I definitely wouldn't dream of even using ANY CD in the car CD player with homemade paper labels. Next time I'll probably wait a while and let the CD player cool down before trying to eject a disc"

One more: "I have had the same problem, CD ERROR message and no ejection thereby disabling the player.
No paper labels here either, just commercial discs w/ paint. I think the problem is heat related. Notice how hot the unit gets? On a recent trip the player failed upon ejection. After I arrived home and the car had been parked for awhile, I returned to it to find the offending CD ejected, then, on command, all remaining CDs ejected. My guess is that a replacement unit wont fix the problem. I think I'll not store CDs in the unit and eject them soon after playing. "

 

[sandiegan]

Thank you all for your responses.
Actually, before I posted my problem here, I googled the same question,- you'd be surprised what you can fix by googling. I got several responses, some of them pretty far out. Some said the CD players were junk and just replace them, which I totally disagree with, because I worked for Ford for 10 years and also, I am a retired electronic technician--and they do install quality electronic components. Several said "pound on the dash while holding down the eject button. But one ,who said he was a Ford trained electronics mechanic, said to remove the radio and unplug all the connections to the radio, not unplug the battery or pull the fuses but to unplug the connections going to the radio, wait 5 minutes and plug them in again. Which to me seems to be the most plausible. I have a Sony Blue-Ray player and a 6 year old Phillips Plasma TV and every so often they mal-function. The only way I get them to work again is to unplug everything--power cord, HDMI connection--wait a few minutes and hook everything back up and they start working properly again. The same with my computer. Seems like a lot of work and a pain in the keester, but that's, it seems to me the digital era.

I posted the question here, because I was hoping there might be another solution besides removing the radio and possibly damaging the IP (IP, short for Instrument Panel, auto industry nomenclature for "dash".
I'll keep you all informed as to what I do.

Thanks again
Bill N.

 

[steveleneave]

changer in a 2003 t-bird

went to remove cd's in changer got "cd error" display like the others, it has been sitting in a unheated garage for weeks, not a heat problem. removed the changer form the dash, then removed all the cd's from the player. installed it back in, got ready to put a cd in, push load button, got a cd message, 'unit is full' and then the "cd error" reappeared, went to a paid tech. site, he research it and said, that was a occurring problem, he suggested removing battery cables and waiting, going to try that next, if that doesn't work, where do you go, to get it repaired steve

 

[steveleneave]

changer in a 2003 t-bird

went to remove cd's in changer got "cd error" display like the others, it has been sitting in a unheated garage for weeks, not a heat problem. removed the changer form the dash, then removed all the cd's from the player. installed it back in, got ready to put a cd in, push load button, got a cd message, 'unit is full' and then the "cd error" reappeared, went to a paid tech. site, he research it and said, that was a occurring problem, he suggested removing battery cables and waiting, going to try that next, if that doesn't work, where do you go, to get it repaired steve

 

[George]

My garage has been 21 degrees for the past 3 months and no issues when I take out on the apron to run it

 

[Harmon]

I recently had my 2004 Thunderbird cd to give me cd error messages. What I did was to remove the #18 fuse by the passenger kick panel for about 10 seconds, then turn on key to make sure cd/radio was not energized. The I turned off ignition replaced the fuse and turned the ignition back on. The radio took a minute or two to initialize, then the cd started to work. It has worked properly since.

 

[RetiredPostmaster]

My CD player on my 2004 T-Bird doesn't work since I replaced the battery a few weeks ago. Everything else has reset OK, the windows, the automatic steering column position setting all work perfectly. Only the CD player won't work
It comes up with "CD Error", or "Initializing", or "No CD" when in fact there are 6 cd's in the player.

Can anybody help. I got some great CD's in there and I really love my T-Bird

Bill Nesbitt

I recently purchased a 2005 and the factory radio/cd does not work either (doesn’t even light up-like it has no power). I have checked all 3 fuses related to the radio (#2, 18, 27) in the passenger fuse box as well as the one in the trunk fuse box (#18) in hopes that I might have a blown fuse. However, all fuses look good. Stupid question, but could a fuse possibly be bad without appearing blown? Could I try replacing those with new fuses? Also, could disconnecting the better for a while and then reconnecting possibly reset the radio? Has anyone else had a similar problem? Thanks

 

[biddle]

Stupid question, but could a fuse possibly be bad without appearing blown? Could I try replacing those with new fuses?

For troubleshooting purposes, swapping out with a working fuse would obviously be a good idea.