I"m new to this Acurazine but am hopeful someone can help me get my 2008 MDX CD-player problem resolved.

My goal is to retain the power to the Radio & Clock but have the power disconnected from the CD unit since it hums, bangs and makes all sorts of noise as it tries to clear a jammed CD from several years ago when my child was using this as their high-school ride and got a home-made CD stuck. They lived with it.. Fast forward a few years and now I'm using it daily and this CD noise is annoying to the point that I have pulled the power plug from the back of the unit (position #5 in the photo below) to make it stop. Unfortunately, I also lose the Radio and Clock. I took the unit out again, took off the top cover of the CD player, and with a bunch of shaking got the broken CD bit out of the unit. Unfortunately, this did not stop the noise. Only when the #5 plug is removed is the CD silent.



Does anyone know if there is a specific wire (from this #5 plug) that I might cut to solve my issue. No power to the CD but power to the other parts? I really don't want to do the cut, test, fix, repeat cycle on these wires in #5 to see if one is the power to the CD only. Does anyone know?



Alternatively, is there a way to remove the CD player from the radio and other parts of the audio system. When I have it on my workbench it's obvious the CD is a separate part mounted to the Radio and mounted to the face plate. I don't know how to proceed to separate these, or if this is even possible such that it will solve my issue.

Since I don't need or want the CD player, getting it's power cut so it stays quiet seems like a possibility.

Hoping someone might have a suggestion.

Thank you for reading my long post.

 

I'm pretty sure the unit can be split to remove the CD change motor and components! Not sure how but I'll try to dig and see if I have any documentation on it. Since you have it out you can always take it to a radio repair shop and see if they can fix the unit. Panasonic I believe makes the audio unit and you can contact them to see if they offer repairs too.

 

Thanks.

I really have zero interest in paying anything for the CD to work. With my iphone and Pandora, the need for CD's is like 4-track tapes.... An interesting point in history.

Anything you learn or can share with me on powering off the CD would be fantastic !!

 

Hi did anyone have a solution to dismantling the CD player? I have the exact same request/problem to just isolate and disable the CD player and keep the radio and clock. I too have a cd that was stuck and is now out, but it continues to to try and eject the CD grinding and buzzing. The biggest problem is that it continues to try and eject after the car is shut off. and if the car sits for a day or two it will actually drain the battery. Very frustrating. Any help would be appreciated!

 

No, but I figured it out on my own. Here is what I did, to the best of my memory:

• With the whole unit out of the car and on my workbench
• I got the top of the CD metal box off.
  • I recall it took some removal of screws and pull the upper (plastic) AC/Heat control off via some small plastic posts with screws attached to the metal side-mount plates
  • I may have "bent" some of the metal (CD case) some.
  • In the end I could see the whole top of the unit with various ribbon cables attaching.
    • I had a brief F.U. here when I disconnected the ribbon cables from the various CD boards. DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE. When I put it together it was quiet, but NOTHING WORKED...
    • Back to the bench, opened up again. Re-connected all the ribbon cables. Re-assemble. Back in car - all things work and the noise is still there.
• Back the bench. Got it all open again. Starting looking more closely and spotted the small motor with some plastic gears (back-left area of CD unit on top as I recall.
  • Look around though for any other motors. I can't remember if there was something else. Kind of don't think so but look closely.
• Cut one of the motor wires. Covered end with electrical tape.
• Re-assembled and SUCCESS

AC/Heat - Clock - Radio - Nav all work.

No sound from the CD player. No action when I try putting a disc into the slot. Perfect...

I hope your efforts are equally successful.

 

Rick - having the same problem as others on this post - I got the 4 stuck cd’s out but it continues to make a loud clicking noise - center of the pic the arm in it goes up and down making the noise - took the negative battery cable off to reset and everything.

Rick - in my pic , can you highlight which wire to cut to disable the CD player fully like you did? Thanks in advance!

 

See attached image. LMK if this works.... I'm pretty sure it will.

 

Thanks Rick - it worked as you thought! Used the solder gun and undid the wire, taped it good and re-installed unit and no longer the loud clicking noise and all else works. It’s an 08 with 188k on it - no CD but runs great overall still.

 

Glad to know it worked. My 08 has 146k miles and other than "riding like a truck" it's a nice daily driver. I came from an Audi A6 and miss having a smoother ride.

 

Guys, thanks so much, I cut the red wire and it worked! BUT, now there is a DVD stuck in the DVD player UGH! I'm going to try and extract the bad DVD. I'm going to try the double sided tape and credit card trick Ive seen. Any feedback or advice is more than welcome! Thanks again!

 

Actually, upon further review, the CD player still has power! It is still grinding and wirring. WTF! I cut that red wire and taped it. Do I need to cut the black wire too? My God this is a pain!

 

Before I got mine to stop making noise, I ended up using some sheet metal shears to "snip" some of the openings and tried to extract the CD stuck in there. I was not successful and eventually just broke it into pieces and got all the "junk" out by pulling with needlenose pliers or shaking it. In the end I am not sure that was worth any effort. I didn't need the CD.

I would try cutting the black wire, but that seems unlikely. Basically that little motor is the noise source. How can it run if it has no power unless your MDX has some other player. Is it a more upscale unit than the basic MDX I have?

 

Rick, if you remove the "lid" off of the CD player to expose the upper CD mechanism, you will see several ribbon cables; these actual provide the link to the main radio unit.

If you remove the middle (larger) ribbon cable by releasing the two side pins, the CD player will no longer be recognized or powered up. You can also easily remove the CD "guts" by removing the four small screws on each corner of the CD "guts" .

 

Terry, I did this as well. Actually just cut both ribbons and pulled the whole cd player out. It finally worked for me. I guess it got power from those ribbons. Its been about a month now and all is well. Thanks all!

 

Hello, Mine is 2007 MDX. I have a parasite drain of .14A with the 10A radio fuse on under the driver dashboard. I have been running with the Radio fuse removed for about an year. Glad to hear cutting the red wire, worked for you guys. Thanks for sharing the information. I tried to do the same, however even after removing the whole radio unit, I still see a draw of .14A in the multimeter. If I remove the 10A radio fuse, the draw goes down to .01A which is normal I guess. Any clue on what else the 10A radio fuse is powering up?

 

The Bluetooth module may be draining as well see this video: