The non-bose CD player in my '97 SE decided it had breathed its last breath on the way home from the train station today. Put anything in, and I get greeted by "CD Err"

Gonna be a while before I can afford to replace it, since I'm between jobs.

Anyone else have the same thing happen to theirs? (so I don't feel like the only one with the bum CD player)

Maxima headunit sucks.
 

I think Nissan puts really cheap headunits in their Maximas. I've seen alot of people complaining about the infamous "CD Err." I have a 98 Maxima and the non bose that came with mine died in about a year. I took it to Nissan and they changed it for me at no cost. If yours is still under warranty then just take it to Nissan for a replacement. If not, then I would suggest a new better quality one... the replacement I got works ok with normal production CDs but struggles with most of the burned ones, especially after the unit heats up. That is a big flaw I've seen in these CD players, if you are on a long trip and play a whole CD through, upon switching you will notice that the disk is pretty much burning hot when you take it out. Is that normal? This is something I've never really noticed in other headunits.

F.Y.I. - for anyone that plays alot of custom CDs in their Max, in my experience SONY CDQ-74CN are the only blanks that always work in the Maxima stock headunit. All others (Maxell, Samsung, TDK) always produce the CD Err after the unit heats up about half way through the CD.

the cooking cd's are caused by
 

the amplifiers are in the deck.

The Bose OEM CD player in my Max died after a year...You could put CDs in, but they would not eject.

Luckily, I was still under warranty and they replaced the entire unit for free. No problems with the new unit after a year and a half.

Re: Maxima headunit sucks.
 

I am not sure about the hot CD in the Maxima but my friend has a Ford that has that problem. If he plays burned CDs too long the shiny part of the CD starts flaking off around the edges. He replaced it though.

Hmmmm... Have you tried running a laser clearer through your CD player yet? It's those CD's with a little brush looking thing that cleans the dust and residue off the laser? I know this fixed serveral different computer CD-ROM drives. It's dusty in the car (just like in the computer with the fan always suck air through the computer). It's hard for the laser to track discs when it's coated with dust/residue.

I don't think it's just the Max CD players that get the CD's hot. I have a Sanyo Excedio 4 disc in-dash changer/head unit in my Miata, my brother had a Blauplunkt in his Scirocco, etc... and they all come out really hot.

I believe most of the headunits for the Maxima (at least '95 up) were made by Clarion...

Try buying different CD's as well. Certain cd colors (blue versus greenish, versus gold, etc...) work better in certain cd players. I've noticed that the cd player tends to skip a little more with cd-r discs. Also, I've had some cd-r discs where i had to insert them 2 or 3 times to get them to read properly...

-V

The CD player is shot completely now. It won't even eject. I'm just gonna save up and splurge for a Pioneer 7300-R. The only bad part is I will now be tempted to build another crazy system like I had in my last car.