Has anyone had any problems with their CD player skipping in the cold? On 3 occassions since November, when the outside temp was below 50, my CD player would skip. The first time it happened, I rotated thru all of the CDs and it happened on all of them. The last 2 times, it happened on 2 of the CDs as I rotated thru them, the other 4 played fine. Given the very intermittant nature of this problem, I haven't taken it to the dealer yet. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Yup. It was -37C this morning and my CD player skipped like crazy. I don't expect it to work well below -20C or so. Once the car warmed up it was fine.

If yours is skipping at 50F then there is something wrong with it. Mine works fine down past 0F.

CM.

 

I have this problem when the temperature is below maybe 20 F or so. It goes away after the car warms up some so I'm guessing it's maybe a condensation problem. I can't be too sure though...

There might be something to do to see if this is what's causing the skipping - get one of those cleaning CD's (they have little brushes on them that dust off the laser, they only cost like $5 or so, I think) and throw that in, let it clean, then see if it works. If it is condensation, this should wipe it off. Something to think about, I don't know...

 

Yeah.. mine does that too.. i dont think i brush would matter... cause you have this icey lens and when you turn the car on.. it causes it to heat up and reflect in weird ways.. cause when my car warms up enough.. it plays fine again... just a crappy cd player is all

 

Mine does this too! I was gonna post this yesterday but decided not to. anyways it has been doing it since the weather has dropped. Every morning it skips until it warms up.

 

im havin the same problem here in chicago.its cold as hell and my cd's skip like crazy

 

does your cd player skip on all the tracks?
I noticed the same problem but it only skips on the
first five or six tracks, usually after track 7 it works ok.

 

It sounds like plasmaorb is right, "just a crappy cd player is all." You would think that anything with moving parts would be temperature tested, maybe Nissan forgot to test the CD player. Other than this occasional glitch, my Max has been great. However, I will note that my previous ride, a 98 Pontiac GP GTP, had a trunk mounted 12 CD changer that operated flawlessly for 5 years in the same environment.

 

Actually, I doubt there is ice on the lens unless it is extremely humid and cold out. Think of how often the inside of the windows in your car fog up compared to completely icing up. I'd still put my money on condensation but I'll just have to wait til it's real cold here again to test it out!

Either way though, I doubt there's much else to do about it. Nissan surely won't replace it unless a TSB or something is put out on it. Just bad quality assurance by Nissan...at least the rest of the car kicks a$$

 

I agree that the CD skipping appears to be a combination of condensation and very low temps -- at least for me. I have another post in the 6th gen about Defroster Operation in the Winter. In it I talk about heating problems at below zero temps just west of Chicago. In addition to at first not getting heat on my feet, there was also a problem playing CDs until the inside of the car warmed up. This was the first time I've had this problem in over 13K miles and about 8 months.

I have driven at above zero F temps (in the teens) and never had a problem playing CDs.

 

I'm just curious how many of you with the skipping CD player have the Bose sound system. The 02-03 Maximas have the same problem my head unit was replaced a year ago but once the weather got cold again I had the same problem with the new head unit as I did with my original. It is annoying considering I didn't have that problem from any of my factory CD changer I had in the 2 altimas I owned before I brought my 02 Maxima...

 

Well.... when it's as cold as its been here lately (zero degrees ).... I choose not to use the CD player/changer until the interior warms up a bit. Not that big a deal to wait.

IMO its just too darn cold to expect electronic equipment with moving parts to operate completely glitch-free.

 

My 04 has the Bose sound system and the skipping happened again to me with the temp in the low 30s. It resolved after about 15 minutes once the car warmed up. Your experience is the reason I haven't taken it to the dealer yet. If the Bose design is defective with respect to cold temp operating conditions, replacing the unit doesn't fix anything. I will try to document it by getting my videocam the next time it happens. That way they can't give me the "we can't recreate the problem" excuse when I do take it in. Very annoying.

 

I have never had this problem, even when driving in temps as low as negative 5.

 

I read this topic a while ago and though man im glad my cd player doesnt skip when it was like 10 degrees in Chicago.. Guess i was wrong because this morning my cd were skipping like crazy, at 20 deg... You would think paying 30k for a new car you wouldnt have problems like this.

 

i have the same problem usually below about 20 but i guarantee if you were to leave a household cd player outside in the cold it would do the same thing, because when it is warm it is fine

 

I believe Clarion makes all Nissan headunits (Bose and standard). I also had a Clarion changer in my VW(at least in the 90s, Clarion made all VW equipment as well), and I had *horrible* problems with skipping, to the point where I had the dealer rip the changer out and VW refunded my money. I was horrified to learn that Clarion made Nissan headunits, and pretty much resigned myself to replacing it after my warranty runs out. I have the Bose in-dash changer in my "purchased in 03/03" '03, and it's only skipped a couple times while going over bumps while it was way below freezing. So I can't complain too much so far, though a couple times when I switched to disc 1 it gives me an "ERR" message on the front of the head unit.

I figure that unless it gets too bad, I'll just wait until my warranty is about up and swap it with the dealer. When that one croaks it's time for aftermarket, baby. Screw Clarion.

 

My Cd changer is getting worse as time progresses. I really dont want another changer I would rather just have a new cd player. I have thought about xm satelite but it wont have much of what I listen to on it. It would be nice to have an mp3 player so I could keep less cds in the car. I dunno what to do.

 

I live in Memphis, TN. and I too had that skipping problem, my dealer told me they have replaced several CD changers and would gladly replace mine. Got it replaced, seems to be much better. They say is a problem with the Clarion Changer...

 

Our CD player skips also. The car is only a month old so we took it back to the dealer. They replaced the CD Player and the new one skips also.
When they replaced it, they scratched the dash, broke a heater vent piece and the shift ****. They said the shift **** has to be broken and removed in order to install a new player - ridiculous !!!!

 

Geez, who is your dealer, Bubba's Nissan and Bait Shop?

The shift **** does need to be removed, true, but just unscrewed. It takes 10 seconds. Talk directly to the service manager, and if they don't make it right pay the $30 and take them to small claims court. That's ridiculous.