C
Colonel Tupperware
Guest
My recently acquired 95 Disco 300tdi ES had a broken OEM radio fitted.
Quite common, apparently. The buttons fall off and it stops working.
Trouble is, it also had a cd082 CD changer fitted, and controlled by
the dead radio.
I found a new replacement radio head unit on eBay, and judged that if
it sold on form, it would be about 50 - 60 squids. I made an
appropriate bid and was amazed to see it soar to 165 sovs. Amazing
considering it was advertised as 'New but the type where the buttons
fall off and it stops working.'
After some careful research (ain't Google wonderful?) I discovered
that the R741 radio fitted to MGFs around 99 - 2000 should also drive
the CD changer. I duly located one on fleabay and won it for a mere 31
squids. The postage was a tad excessive at £15 so I collected it from
a nice lady in Rugby and saved about 4p for the 110 mile round trip in
the snow! It came complete with fitting cage, manual and code so I was
hoping for a result.
Time for fitting; it went in with no problems, plugged straight in,
including sub woofer power and CD changer. But the changer made no
signs of life apart from the radio display acknowledging its
existence.
Out comes the spanners and soon I have a CD changer on the bench.
Unusually it comes apart very easily, no tricky hidden plastic tags or
stuck bits. I couldn't find any obvious reason for its lack of
function, so I started poking the mechanical bits, as you do, and soon
had the CD magazine removed. Plugging it back in sans cover still had
no effect. Twisting, shaking and more poking though, soon had it
clicking and whirring, and after teaching it how to extract CDs from
the mag, I was soon reeling to some ancient Genesis and some more
modern Jools Holland.
So £31, 110 miles and 2 hours work and a bit of poking about gets me a
nice 6CD, cassette, RDS radio setup, complete with a functioning
electric aerial. Shame about the dash control buttons not working, but
hey, you can't have everything.
I know the previous owner of the car and he'd never had the radio
working so I guess that the radio had been dead for so long that the
CD had just stuck through inaction and the aerial hasn't been used
enough to break yet, it does have a slight bend at the bottom of the
mast, so I suppose it won't be long before it snaps off like all the
others.
Next on the list is to fix the wiper parking problem, then the glow
plug control circuit, then to figure out how to turn off the fully
funtional A/C without having to unplug the compressor clutch circuit.
Now of course, after 1500 miles of ownership and it being dry for the
first week, the small but irritating oil leaks have started, not least
a leak from the clutch hydraulic damper union.
What would happen if I mentioned Vegetable oil? Old chestnuts get
thrown at me by any chance?
--
ColonelTupperware,
spouting bollocks on Usenet since 1997
Usenet FAQ at
http://www.its.caltech.edu/its/services/internetapps/news/news2.shtml
UPCE FAQ at http://upce.org.uk/ UKRM FAQ at http://www.ukrm.net/faq/
Quite common, apparently. The buttons fall off and it stops working.
Trouble is, it also had a cd082 CD changer fitted, and controlled by
the dead radio.
I found a new replacement radio head unit on eBay, and judged that if
it sold on form, it would be about 50 - 60 squids. I made an
appropriate bid and was amazed to see it soar to 165 sovs. Amazing
considering it was advertised as 'New but the type where the buttons
fall off and it stops working.'
After some careful research (ain't Google wonderful?) I discovered
that the R741 radio fitted to MGFs around 99 - 2000 should also drive
the CD changer. I duly located one on fleabay and won it for a mere 31
squids. The postage was a tad excessive at £15 so I collected it from
a nice lady in Rugby and saved about 4p for the 110 mile round trip in
the snow! It came complete with fitting cage, manual and code so I was
hoping for a result.
Time for fitting; it went in with no problems, plugged straight in,
including sub woofer power and CD changer. But the changer made no
signs of life apart from the radio display acknowledging its
existence.
Out comes the spanners and soon I have a CD changer on the bench.
Unusually it comes apart very easily, no tricky hidden plastic tags or
stuck bits. I couldn't find any obvious reason for its lack of
function, so I started poking the mechanical bits, as you do, and soon
had the CD magazine removed. Plugging it back in sans cover still had
no effect. Twisting, shaking and more poking though, soon had it
clicking and whirring, and after teaching it how to extract CDs from
the mag, I was soon reeling to some ancient Genesis and some more
modern Jools Holland.
So £31, 110 miles and 2 hours work and a bit of poking about gets me a
nice 6CD, cassette, RDS radio setup, complete with a functioning
electric aerial. Shame about the dash control buttons not working, but
hey, you can't have everything.
I know the previous owner of the car and he'd never had the radio
working so I guess that the radio had been dead for so long that the
CD had just stuck through inaction and the aerial hasn't been used
enough to break yet, it does have a slight bend at the bottom of the
mast, so I suppose it won't be long before it snaps off like all the
others.
Next on the list is to fix the wiper parking problem, then the glow
plug control circuit, then to figure out how to turn off the fully
funtional A/C without having to unplug the compressor clutch circuit.
Now of course, after 1500 miles of ownership and it being dry for the
first week, the small but irritating oil leaks have started, not least
a leak from the clutch hydraulic damper union.
What would happen if I mentioned Vegetable oil? Old chestnuts get
thrown at me by any chance?
--
ColonelTupperware,
spouting bollocks on Usenet since 1997
Usenet FAQ at
http://www.its.caltech.edu/its/services/internetapps/news/news2.shtml
UPCE FAQ at http://upce.org.uk/ UKRM FAQ at http://www.ukrm.net/faq/
