so i got a 2000 lexus es 300 and i burnt a cd on itunes and it wouldnt play, and i read somewhere on here to burn wma so i did that and it still wouldnt play, then i tried wmv and it STILL wouldnt play! wtf is wrong with my ****

 

Your original Lexus Radio will only play regular recorded CDs. Not mp3, etc

 

i have the same problem with my 04 ES. the only way it will a burnt cd if it is a good quality cd.

 

I played only burnt cd's before I installed my new HU, never had a problem. Try slowing down the write speed and make sure you are creating an audio cd, not data, meaning you are using the cd in terms of it's 80min and not 700mb limit.

 

I think I have the answer for you -

I had a 97 es300 and the factory stereo would only play CD's that are on the disc format CD-R I think this was purely due to the technology back then, they didn't have 'rewritables (CD-RW that can be re wiped and used again), or if they did the Lexus stereo CD player couldn't read them. This is the case today with all sorts of CD players on computers and portable stereos - each can play certain disc types only. Of course most new CD players today can play more types of discs - CD-R, CD- RW, CD+RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, etc etc.

Burn your music to a CD-R disc and try it and see - I used to burn Cd's from I tunes all the time and play them on my ES300 Stereo fine but they would only work on a CD-R disc (you can only burn it once). If I used a CD-RW or another format disc it wouldn't play.

Hope it works for you.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm a new 1997 SC 300 owner. Got it from the original owner in mint condition with all Lexus service records.

 

These are all good points:

- Use good quality CD-R
- burn an Audio CD format (MP3/WMA/ACC don't work on old head units)
- burn at a lower speed ( I don't recommend higher then 16x for Audio CD's)
- If you have a changer remember to put the discs in upside down

here are the instructions for iTunes:
https://support.apple.com/kb/TA38263

Dave