Audio Systems: Tape stuck in car Stereo, nissan safari, car audios

Question
Hi,

I have a 1995 Nissan Safari which is essentially the same vehicle as the Nissan Patrol Series GQ or Ford Maverick Series DA. I do not have the vehicle user manual nor can I get one as they are all in Japanese. The vehicle has a sereo radio/tape deck and I got a tape stuck in the tape deck. I removed the unit from the vehicle and discovered that it was a Xanavi Model CSK-9301QA. I could not find any information on this model on the net. I managed to physically remove the tape from the unit but the tape mechanism is still in the lowered position and the unit still thinks it has a tape in it. When I power it on it displays "Tape" briefly and then immediately defaults to radio. Then it will not eject the tape nor move the mechanism into the upper position to receive a new tape. I think that this problem arose originally when the unit was playing a tape and was the changed to radio by pressing the FM/AM button. It seems as if the unit is locked in some sort of confused state. I know that some car audios can be reset by pressing a combination of buttons on power up. I have tried a few but to no avail. Can you give me any advice.

Phil fromw Zealand


Answer
Did you google around for such help?  There are many sites that have good ideas.  For example:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5028536_remove-car-radio-cassette-player.html

The deck can be experiencing electronic or mechanical failure. Usually from wear or breakage or some foreign object getting stuck in the works (such as paper clip, hair pin, dirt, etc.).

A slipped gear, worn belt, oil leakage in the wrong areas, etc.  

You can sometimes manually turn the mechanism parts until it clears and goes back to no-cassette position.  

Electronically it is automatically reset when power is removed.  If the processing IC has failed you will need to troubleshoot it and replace the defective parts, etc.

Hope this helps, but you may find it cheaper in the long run to just replace the head unit all together; but you will find it difficult to locate cassette player units.  Most of them nowdays are CD based or for MP3 players, etc.

Good Luck,

C