CD player, Chassis Ground

[Mikelb]

Ok, I have a question, it relates to the CD player in my BMW, but isn't necessarily car specific.

I just bought a slightly used Alpine CD player. It worked fine when pulled from the other vehicle, but doesn't work in my car. The radio works in my car, but the CD player doesn't work. It shows that it is reading the disc, and it realizes how many tracks are on the disc, but there is no sound.

I do not have the CD player installed in the dash, it's just kinda hanging there (for now). Could it be that the CD player needs the chassis ground (screwed into the dash)? Or should I just return the CD player?

Thx,
-Mike

[nova1313]

ground it and find out but it shouldn't matter. My alpine I've had hanging from the dash several times (the ground was always connected on the wires) but never on the chasis and it worked just fine.

Are you positive it worked and the cd player worked in the other car?

[Mikelb]

Originally Posted by nova1313

ground it and find out but it shouldn't matter. My alpine I've had hanging from the dash several times (the ground was always connected on the wires) but never on the chasis and it worked just fine.

Are you positive it worked and the cd player worked in the other car?

yes, it was brand new in the other car, and worked just fine... it's just not playing the CDs for some reason (although it shows the time, like it's reading them, and you can hear the CD spinning)

[l_eclipse_l]

Did you make sure all the speaker wires are hooked up correctly? Did you buy and adapter, or hack off the stock wiring harness to connect everything?

[Mikelb]

Originally Posted by l_eclipse_l

Did you make sure all the speaker wires are hooked up correctly? Did you buy and adapter, or hack off the stock wiring harness to connect everything?

I have an adaptor... all the wire colors matched those of the Alpine harness... yes, everything is hooked up correctly (minus it's position in the Dash)

[Plug-It-In]

Ya, it should work if its grounded, i have an alpine in my car and what they reccomend is to NOT use the stock power and the stock ground for the headunit. I would run the power wire from the headunit directly to the battery, then ground the cd player out to something metal inside the dash, you dont have to do this, but its how they recomend it and its how ive always done it. And make sure you have the cd player horizontal, because i know mine doesnt like it when its at weird angles...

[Mikelb]

I'll give it a shot at regrounding... let you know what happens... the factory power is fine in the BMW, I'm not running a huge setup, just stock stuff for now

[Mikelb]

damn guys... I just figured out what it was... took me all this time f'in around with it to figure it out... and it was simple as hell...

Taken from: http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/supp...its_faq07.html

Subject:
Receiving audio from the radio but no audio when you insert a CD.

The BLUE and BLUE/WHITE wires may have been reversed at the time of installation. The BLUE antenna wire will shut down when you switch to CD. Use the BLUE/WHITE wire for your turn-on lead on the amplifiers.

[l_eclipse_l]

haha I was close, figured it has to be in the wiring. Nice that you finally figured it out, something like that would bother me a lot.

[Mikelb]

it did bother me... I knew that the CD player was practically new, and I knew that the radio worked... and the CD player would work (somewhat), it told me how many tracks were on the CD and would count the timing on the CD... it just wouldn't play... it irked me til now... lol...

[Mikelb]

oh, just an update... I finally got around to fixing it, and that was the problem... just needed to use the remote turn on wire to the factory antenna wire... b/c that turns on the amps.

I took Tue night and tore the whole damn dash out and put it in the right way(now it don't fall out of the dash, lol)... oh and I installed some neons while I was in there (rice, I know), but they were just laying around... figured wth, might as well amuse some kids while I've got it apart