Possible Reason For Jammed Cds And Resulting Error Message

[RX400h]

I was perusing through my MX-5's owner's manual, today and found advice that may be relevant to our Lexus CD players.

The manual suggests removing the sharp outer edges of any CD before it is loaded into the CD changer. Sharp edges, according to the manual, may prevent the CD changer from operating correctly, resulting in an ERROR message. A depiction shows a pencil held against the upper CD edge while the CD is rotated. Repeat for the lower edge.

After I thought about it, I realized that it does make perfect sense, although I'd use a small file or carefully held razor blade to do the same thing. Hey, it's worth a try!

[pj8708]

It does make sense, For awhile during the first part of the year and last year, there seemed to be several reports of jammed CD's. Lets pass this information on if more complaints come in.

Thanks Dave.

Paul

[RX400h]

If that technique doesn't work, try changing "mode" from CD to FM (with button steering wheel) while turning your ignition key on and off. That seems to work when all else fails.

[1990LS400]

The pencil technique is illustrated in my 2000 LS400 owners manual but I don't see it in Lexus owner manuals for later model years. I have never encountered a CD with a rough edge - maybe it was a problem in the early years of CD's?

I stopped using my CD changer in 2012 when I got an aux-in installed on the Nakamichi radio in my LS400. I stored all the same music on my phone and I couldn't tell any difference in sound quality between music on a CD and the same music in WMA format steaming from my phone - and I really, really tried to identify a difference. The random access allowed when streaming from a phone or from flash memory is incredibly more convenient than CD's - wonderful to see the album name, artist name, song title and even the album cover.

I didn't mind "losing" my CD changer at all when I had an aftermarket radio installed a few months ago. I'm betting that audio compact discs will soon be as rare as cassette tapes.

[RX400h]

I did think it odd that our 06 RX came with a cassette player along with the 6 CD changer. However, the number of songs that can be burned onto those 6 CDs is plenty for the 15 minute commute to work and back.

And while I agree that CD players are fading from being OEM, there are still lots of older folks with large CD collections. My Dad is one who will never use an ipod or MP3 player.

[1990LS400]

I did think it odd that our 06 RX came with a cassette player along with the 6 CD changer. However, the number of songs that can be burned onto those 6 CDs is plenty for the 15 minute commute to work and back.

And while I agree that CD players are fading from being OEM, there are still lots of older folks with large CD collections. My Dad is one who will never use an ipod or MP3 player.

There are lots of "older folks" with vinyl record collections too. That didn't stop the demise of in-car vinyl record players. And who remembers 8-track tapes? I used to have those. That a lot of people have large CD collections hasn't stopped Toyota from dropping CD changers from its Lexus vehicles which now at most have a single disc CD/DVD player.

I'll go out on a limb and predict that the future of iPod and standalone MP3 players is also dim as is the future of satellite radio which is far worse. The smartphone is becoming the center of the in-car entertainment universe. Who even needs broadcast radio anymore? We listen to broadcast FM radio while in town but when we travel we stream whichever of the 100,000 radio stations we want to listen to through the free "tunein" application on our Apple and Android smartphones. It looks like all 50+ radio stations that can be received over the air here in the Kansas City area can be streamed from tunein.

Although all the audio a person has stored on an iPod or MP3 player can now be stored on a smartphone even that is going to change as phone service improves since it is now possible for a person to store and stream an entire personal music collection from services on that mysterious "cloud".

I don't know what your definition of "older folks" is but I know a lot of 60+ year old geezers like me who stream audio from their smartphones. One of my younger (he's "only" 62) coworkers used to kid me about all the media stuff I do with my smartphone and tell me that he had absolutely no interest in ever doing anything like that. Then he bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 a few months ago and became an streaming media addict.

[pj8708]

Diffrent things work for diffrent people.

[RX400h]

My dad is old enough to be your (1990LS400's) Dad, so it is very likely that those in his generation (Korean war era) have little interest in streaming anything. But Lexus has to be careful with what it eliminates. That's why they were still equipping their audio systems with cassette players, way back in 2005-2008!

I used to listen to lots of music when I had lots of time on my hands. Most of my time is now spent on the PC, either at work or home, and to be honest, I'm not one who can concentrate on multiple tasks while listening to music. However, I do have a nice stereo setup in the garage, allowing me to listen while working on the cars.

As Paul says,

Different things for different people.