Audio Systems: cd palyer 2001 Ford Taurus, photo transistor, ford taurus

Question
My 2001 Taurus has a CD player in the AM/FM radio.  It is single disc player, not a changer.  The radio works fine and the CD player did too.  It now will not accept a CD.  There is no CD in the slot. When you put a CD in the slot it USED TO "grab" it and pull it in and play it.  All of sudden it stopped doing that. When you put a CD in it does nothing.  You can put it in further and further manually but it never takes it in far enough to play.  You can even put it in so far that you have to use a tweezers to get it out.  When you push the Reject button, the display says No CD.  When you push the Play button, the display says No CD.  Apparently, the CD used to hit something as it was being inserted into the slot.  Whatever it hit would then finish the process of pulling the CD in, putting it in the proper place and let it play until you ejected it.

I think that it I removed the faceplate of the radio I may be able to see what is going on.  There are four small holes in the face on the radio. Two on the right and two on the left (in about the middle of the radio).  I assume something goes into those holes to remove the faceplate?  I tried a small screwdriver both regular and phillips and an allen wrench.  They all go in all the way. There doesn't seem to be anything back there (inside the wholes) to loosen the faceplate.  Any suggestions as to how to get the faceplate off or if that will solve my problem.  Any suggestions?
Jim

Answer
Jim,
First off the CD unit isn't taking in the CD most likely due to a faulty in load sensor unit. The sensor unit/board is located on the top cover of the CD player assembly. Basically what happens when you insert a CD, is that the CD will cause the light from the LED to reflect back to the sensor(photo transistor)and when the sensor is activated the control computer will turn on the load motor to pull the CD into the player. As for the removal of the stereo from the dash, you can try using four large nails and insert one in each hole until you feel them hit the spring clips. With the nails in the holes put slight pressure on them towards the outside of the stereo and pull out on the stereo to release it from the dash.


TOM,
T&D ELECTRONICS
tdeser@zoominternet.net