First time poster here looking for some help. Have a '00 XLT with the single disk in-dash CD player. On a recent long trip, I began to have problems with the disk feeding into the player. The unit will "pull" the CD in but then all I hear is a bunch of ratcheting type sounds and the CD will then be ejected. Every once in a while (20-30 trys) it will properly load the CD and play just fine. If I leave a CD loaded, it will also play fine even after turning off the truck and restarting it. When this first started I also noticed that the CD would be very hot when ejected (I never got a "hot CD" warning however). I gather that this is a common problem from reading other threads. It tends to load the CD without problems if the radio has been turned completely off for about 10 minutes so it does seem as if the feeding problems may be related to the unit running hot. So my questions are...

Has anyone experienced this loading problem and find a solution to it?
If a new unit with the fan is needed is this something that is a recall type fix? (I am not under warranty any longer and Ford said a radio exchange would run around $300)
Thanks for any info!

 

I'd recommend you take that radio and get rid of it. Aftermarket is alot better. I have an 02 xlt and I took the radio out about six months after I got the thing. Don't pay 300 for the factory radio. It is ugly and not worth that much. If you want a recommendation I recommend you get a pioneer Deh7400mp. You can get the radio for about $225 and it looks much better than the factory radio plus it plays mp3s and has some visuals.

 

Why do they charge so much for factory radios anyway? I even called a salvage yard just to see if I could pick up one for cheap and they wanted $225 for my unit!! What a rip-off!

Thanks for the suggestion invalid-access. I actually went looking around and like the look/sound of the pioneer DEH-P3500. I was thinking of also hooking this to a 6 or 12 disk changer. I'm not a big audiophile so I'm trying to keep it more simple.

Any opinions on this radio?

Also, seeing as I'm on novice at all things audio installation wise, would this look good in my truck? Meaning not to small in the dash opening.

 

You gotta have a dash kit to fill the whole. That will cost you about $10 dollars. Get a metra dash kit. Next you will need a wiring harness so you don't have to fool with cutting your factory harness. Basically the wiring harness plugs into the plug that came off the factory radio and is color coded so it is easy to hook your new radio up. Don't get the quick connect things from circuit city. They usually don't work. You will also need a set of ford radio keys which are about 2 dollars at Wal Mart. That radio you picked out is pretty good, but exactly how much do you wanna spend on a cd player. I don't understand either while Ford wants to charge so much for the factory radio. It just plain out ugly and doesn't sound all that good.

Here what your will look like when your done. Just to give you an idea.
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