bonoman

I have an 04 MDX and for the past year my Navigation has been out with the message: "Disc Reading Error, Please Consult Your Dealer".


I searched and found this board and a thread from a couple of years ago and followed it which removed the Nav system, removed the outside case, and tried to clean the laser lens with a q-tip and some alcohol. Upon reinstalling I ended up making things worse.


Now I was getting a message that said it was downloading software, but then immediately came up with the message stating "Please Check Your Disc" with a black screen and writing in green, I believe. Furthermore, I couldn't access the A/C controls to increase/decrease the fan or see the temperature outside or anything else that I could before I removed the system.


So I'm thinking I need to spend however much it is now to send to Alpine to fix, and immediately since I lost my a/c controls except for the manual controls above my nav screen.


One last attempt: I took a metal pie slicer from the kitchen that is ultra thin, then grabbed my sunglasses cloth which can also store my glasses in and slid the pie slicer into that and duct taped the open end of the cloth to the slicer to ensure it stayed on it like a sock. I ejected the DVD disc and ran the slicer with the cloth around it into the DVD slot. I could feel some spring area which I assumed was the laser lens but basically ran it around all areas it would go for about 20 seconds. I then took out the slicer and but the disc back in. I did have to play with the Nav system a bit to get the DVD to go back in (you basically trick it thinking there is a DVD in there when you are cleaning it with the thin pie slicer I believe...so you have to un-trick it). Once I got the DVD back in the damn thing kicked on and started downloading the software and had me enter my NAV code and BAM, the thing is working like new again!!!


I hope this helps someone out there. Good luck, and save your money!