Car Stereos: car cd player, independent repair shops, car cd player

Question
i have a 2000 grand am gt, my cd player all of a sudden started giving me trbl. i would put a cd in and it wouldn't read it, and i would do it a few times and it would take it. I bought a head cleaner and put that in there and it didn't work. Whenever i put any CD in it reads E20, what does that mean and how do i fix it??

Answer
Hi Melissa,

Sorry, but I don't have any ideas for a quick fix.  It sounds like your CD player has an internal problem that will need to be repaired.  (I've never seen a CD lens cleaner fix a problem yet).  Most GM dealers won't do repairs on CD players, although they could certainly sell you a replacement.  You'd probably need to call a few independent repair shops.  Luckily, it's very easy to remove the CD player in your car, so you shouldn't have to pay someone to do that for you.

There is an online service that will repair factory CD players like yours.  I took a look at their page, and they estimate about $190 to repair a problem that results in an Err or E20 message.  Here's the link:

http://carstereohelp.com/pontiac.htm

Personally, I'd be looking at an after-market replacement for that price range; you can get a good basic AM/FM CD player, together with the right adapter parts for your car, for not much more than $150-$170.

Hope this helps!

Brian