I bought a 2000 F150 in Dec and had a six disc changer (Awia) installed at the dealer (he took it somewhere and had it done). The radio has to be tuned to 89.7 for it to play. When listening to the CD though you can hear a high pitched sound coming from the speakers. I'm taking it back for service soon and I'm thinking of having them take the changer out. Can anyone tell if this is normal. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

What you ended up with is a changer that "modulates" thru the FM section of your existing dash radio/cassette player. This is the way to do it if you can't match the "head unit" (Radio/Tuner/Cassette player) with a CD changer. Usually this means buying a campatible "set" of the same brand, although some aftermarket changers WILL work with factory head units. See Crutchfield's catalogs for more info. You can call them and they can tell you if they have an adaptor that will make an aftermarket changer work with a factory head unit...that is, a direct pairing...no modulator unit.

I had a modulator unit in a 92' Chev Blazer and liked it fine. It was a JVC unit and it DID pick up a whine when cranked up loud. Perhaps your changer and radio are mounted too close together or the modulator box isn't shielded well enough from the other wiring in the dash. The modulated changers usually cost $20-$50 more than the std slave units.

Later, I bought a matched JVC head unit and a 12 disk changer (no modulator)...now have it installed in my 97 F150. Sounds GREAT, and with 12 disks, you can cruise for days without hearing the same tunes. Why anyone buys the 6 or 8 or 10 disk changers is beyond me.

Hope this helps.

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'97 F150 Supercab XLT; 4.6l; 3.55; ABS; 17" whls; dual exhaust; Waldoch Conversion (Custom Paint/graphics, powerslider rear window; walnut dash trim; overhead console; F'glass 'boards); fiberglass bed cap; towing package; JVC Head unit & 12 disk changer; Prince compass/temp RV mirror; Anti-theft.