lalaland

I noticed how many people hate the CD changer because of its crappy ability to read CD's. I was wondering if anyone has tried adjusting the intensity pot on the laser. (I did not find a similar post in the forum)

If anyone has, please post results. If not, I guess I will just try it and post results.

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

PM "lexusaudio".

lalaland

meh, takes too long, decided to do it anyways

works great, no skipping, reads every track on any cd, fast response,

if anyone wants, i can add more info,

and before asking for more info, increasing the intensity of a laser shortens life, by how much i dont know, but i figure i rather have a working cd player that wont last as long than a cd player that wont work forever

edit: forgot to add it requires simple electrical knowhow, multimeter and taking the cd changer apart.

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

So tell us how to tell which pot is for the laser intensity. Any other info you can add to make it easier for anyone else trying to do this would be appreciated.

lalaland

my only defense is that i was bored.....

First remove the trim surrounding the CD changer taking care not to snag the emergency fuel tank cap cover release. There might be plastic keepers that keep the trim in place and pull these out so they do not rip the trim.

Four screws hold the cd changer in place, locate and unscrew these and unplug two wires going into the CD changer into the car.

Refer to this link for more information on removing CD changer:

http://www.carstereohelp.com/stereor...C300CDCgrR.htm

After removing the cd changer, there are four screws holding two plates which anchor the cd changer to the car. Remove these and note which one is installed to which side of the cd changer.

Open the cd changer lid and remove the four screws shown in the following picture:



pull the lid and surrounding trim out. This should reveal a balck grounding wire underneath where the yellow circle is drawn. Remove the screw retaining this wire.

Next, unscrew four screws on the side near the bottom of the cd changer. I am not referring to those on the bottom of the cd changer. The screws that you are removing should be the same size as the four you just removed from the top. (Sorry, no picture)

Turn the changer to look at where the wires plug into the cd changer. There is a cap over the plugs held by quite a few screws. Unscrew all these and take off the cover. Disconnect the wires going to this little circuit board.

Next separate the side wall from the bottom plate by pulling up slowly making sure there are no snags on any wires that you may break. (My CD changer looked like it was opened before by the previous owner and I am unsure if all screws were replaced. These were the screws I needed to remove to remove the side wall, remove more screws as necessary)

Looking at the naked cd changer from the side, you should find a picture similar to this:



The variable resistor in question is the one circled in white:




Mark with a sharpy, or equivalent, the current marking position of the pot. There should be three different leads coming out of the pot. One on the bottom and two on top.

Time for the multimeter. Turn it on and turn it on 20KOhm setting range (or equivalent).

Since my CD changer has been opened before, I cannot guarantee that my original values are close to yours, but my original resistive values between the bottom and the top left was 1.8KOhms and between the between bottom and the top right was 0.36KOhm.

For my particular CD changer, I moved the resistor counter-clockwise the width f one sharpy mark. The values read 2.01KOhms and 0.20KOhms.

Notes: I don’t know what the lower limit should be; neither do I know the upper limit (a good rule of thumb is less than a quarter of a turn). This cd lens assembly was different in the ones I usually change. Try not to make to radical of a change cause too much increase will kill the laser. If your cd player skips MORE after the tweak, try adjusting it in the other direction (if still doesn work, then you are SOL).

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

Great, thanks.
Note that the above is for SC300. Anyone attempting this for a different model car may or may not encounter the same changer. They all will have similar characteristics though, even if not exactly the same layout.