Question3 of the 6 discs (2, 4 and 6) do not seem to read any disc. The other 3 work fine. They were working well untill a month ago and I am wondering whether I should clean the unit. If so, how do I do it?
What would you do, if cleaning doesn't work?
Thanks in advance
AnswerHave you tried moving the discs around? If a disc plays in one slot and move it to another slot that did not play its disc then you would know the disc is at fault. This is quite common; with age and collection of dust and surface contamination some discs lose their playability.
Best way to clean a disc is with warm soapy water; use a mild dish soap; rinse off good with cool water and let them dry in open air in a dish rack. This is better than store-bought cleaning agencies and gadgets.
To clean off the lens you must remove the unit from the dash (no small chore), remove the cover so you can get into the optical pickup area; then with a cotton q-tip flick the surface of the lens a few times in the same direction to knock off the microscopic particles that may have accumulated. If the unit has anti-theft codes, make sure you have the codes at hand so you can get it started up again after reinstalling it back into the dash. There are some commercial cleaning discs that have little brushes built into the surface of the disc that will clean the lens also, but I don't have a good feeling about them - but may be worth a try if you don't like the idea of removing the whole unit.
If the cleaning does not solve the problem it is possible the internal disc tray mechanisms have been damaged or worn for those trays that are not working. This would require some serious and costly repairs. In this case you may want to think about a replacement.
http://www.oemautosound.com/c-17-toyota.aspx
I don't know if this company has a model for your car or not, but you can check with them - and others. Also, crutchfield.com is a good place to check on what is available and fits your car.
Let me know if you have further thoughts.
Cleggsan
