Help and questions about Chrysler Combo-deck headunit

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

Hello, o wise ones!

I would be honored if you could bestow on me, thine knowledge of electronics and mechanical pieces.

About a year ago, I bought a Chrysler/ Mitsubishi RAZ (?) Radio/ CD/ Cassette unit on ebay, that had been modified with an AUX input on the top left side near the volume dial. I believe the model is: P04704383AF. I only have a very basic understanding about electronics, but the seller says there needs to be a CD inserted and running for the AUX to work.

There has not been any problems really (except my devices having a hard time understanding what is connected), until late november, when the CD would abruptly stop after about 25-30 minutes of playing. Even when the AUX is not connected. When this happens, the screen says “–ERR–”, and the eject button will not function correctly. It is like the CD gets totally stuck, so the mechanism to insert and push out the CD won’t work, but the unit thinks it has been ejected.

I can try to switch between CD to AM/FM, the player will try to start, but stops after a few seconds, and then says error again. But if i turn the car off for a few minutes, i can hold the eject button (with no power) and it will push out the CD, or i can turn the car on again and it will work.

I took the unit apart to look for any dirt, burnt out electronics, anything that looked wrong really.
so here is the CD tray without the lid, and Im guessing this is some sort of arresting mechanism to hold the cd in place.

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And here it is, as if there was a CD inserted.

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When i was testing it (just by moving it myself), it had some difficulty returning to the “ejected” position by itself, so i added a tiny amount of grease, which made it move a bit easier. But I also have a suspicion that there are a few of these tiny springs missing, especially on this mechanism.

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As you can see, it has a hook, but it did not have a spring on it when I opened it up, and i can’t really find a separate hook for a spring to go between (maybe it shares a hook with another spring?)

Since I have to get these units from the US, I am not really looking into buying a new one or a spareparts unit just at the moment (It costs about $450 including shipping), it would be great if someone could help me find out if there should be a spring here? and where I could find a replacement?

I would also appreciate if someone could help me find replacements for these grain-o-wheat bulbs and fittings, and these buttons. Either identical or just something that works.

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As always, I welcome any help or tips I can get, and that you forgive me for the many atrocities I undoubtedly commited towards the english langauge. o7.

2

I would check out this website for the lighting

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3

I think you just found out why the seller put it on Ebay.

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4

Hehe, Maybe, but there’s a lot of them for sale, so I thought it couldnt be TOO bad.

5

Perhaps it goes without saying…

But unless you just happen to have some skills/tools for electronics repair available, you’re going to be far better off just replacing this head unit with an aftermarket unit. Sony and Kenwood make good stuff, and it will likely have a “factory installed” AUX port already.

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6

Very true. I’ve seen some very weird problems doing my own wiring. Not car related, but one time I was fixing my telephone’s land-line wiring. Terrible static, had been working fine for 10 years. I found it worked perfectly to the building’s outside wall. Then I found that just one 30 year old wire pair from the outside wall-box to the interior was causing all the static. Turned out the wire-pair was good, but the junction box the wire pair connected inside had two different colored screws, copper and gray. The gray colored screw showed signs of oxidation & was causing the entire problem.

7

What could possibly go wrong LOL. Get an aftermarket unit with the features you want.
www.crutchfield.com

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8

I probably still have a non CD head unit from my old 95 Intrepid that I pulled out still working back in 96 when I built a big (kinda, for the day) sound system… lol

But yeah, with todays technology, you can get an aftermarket head unit with about whatever you want included, that sounds better and budget minded depending on options… Just buy the install kit as well as the wiring kit, wire the new harness to the new head unit on the work bench, kitchen table, wherever and it is plug n play after that… And best of all, you are not buying someone’s left overs…

9

Many people, including myself, prefer the stock stereo. Just about every vehicle I have owned, I either had to buy a used stock stereo to replace a stock stereo which stopped working, or to replace an aftermarket unit which a previous owner installed. However, I would NEVER buy one which has been modified to add feature(s) which were not present in the original design.

And therein lies the problem. The Chrysler ordering code RAZ was used for two generations of AM/FM/CD/cassette head units, neither of which offered an AUX input.

Originally, this ordering code was used for the AM/FM/CD/cassette head units which came in the 1996-2000 Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country. To this day, this remains a highly desirable and sought-after car stereo, because it fits just about every Chrysler vehicle from the late 1980s through 2000, and is plug-and-play.

Later, this ordering code was used for the AM/FM/CD/cassette head units in the 2001+ Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan, Chrysler Voyager, etc.

10

Also, it’s not nearly as easy as it used to be to find aftermarket head units for some vehicles, they’re odd dimensions. I don’t know if that applies here.

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11

Sorry for the delay in answering, christmas break and new years and all that.

I could not find anything mechanically wrong (except for the possibly missing spring), so i tried tuning the laser a bit and put it back together. The good news is that I didn’t break it any further, the bad news is that it the CD player still has the same problem like i didn’t touch it.

So I am currently looking for a working replacement, but not modified, and I have bought myself a cassette-aux adapter (which is working fine, but doesn’t have as good quality audio as the CD/aux modification), and also looking for someone who can take a look at it that knows about soldering and electronics and such.

Thank you all for the comments, and have a happy new year.

12

No experience w/your car, but my knucklehead diyer opinion is your best bet, time & $$$-wise, is to bite the bullet & have a new sound system pro-installed. If you still want to try to fix the CD player, I’ve had some luck with home-players by increasing the distance from the lens to the CD surface. The spindle tends to wear w/use and this lets the CD drop and get too close to the lens.