QuestionI have a '99 Ford Taurus 100,000+ miles. When I use the stock radio's tape deck to play a tape, the tape will skip and eventually eject showing a message of : T D E 1 . Sometimes it works but it has been getting worse with time. I tried cleaning the heads but it has no effect. Do I need to buy a new Radio or is this something that can be fixed? Thanks in advance.
AnswerThat "Error 1" message is, unfortunately, both common and generic.
It could be anything, but I suspect that it may be mechanical... your head cleaner doensn't nessarily re-align any of the transport dogs or do anything more than scour the top of the magnetic tape head pick-up. There's a 10% chance it's the tape and not the player - if it only does it with certain tapes, and you find that those tapes do seize up occasionally when you put a pencil through one of the reeal and try to crank it through manually.
Knowing my own car's history, I'd wager that somewhere, some how, a soda got into something....
I hate to say it, but to fix it would cost as much (quite possibly more) as something new (assuming anyone would be willing to fix it). My suggestion would be to look into buying a new unit. You might even be able to upgrade to a combination CD/Tape player (like the Sanyo FXCD550 - though this is NOT and endorsement) to expand your roadtrip possiblities.
I might discourage you from going to the dealer for a replacement, installation costs are inflated and you've just found out about the quality of equipment they stock.
Good luck!
