Hi, I've had my 1998 acura RL for a few weeks now and have figured out that my tape deck isn't working. I'm trying to use a cassette adapter, and it keeps switching sides when I put it in the player. It does this 5 or six times then auto ejects. Every time it switches to side A it plays what my phone plays for half a second, then flips over again. I've tried two different brands, and I've looked online to see if it was the adapter itself. It's not, so if anyone knows what's wrong with my tape deck, please help! Thank you!

 

The tape is normally pulled across the head by the capstan, and then wound up on the "take up reel" . A photo sensor monitors the rotation of the other hub (supply reel). When it senses the hub is not moving it assumes the end of the tape is reached and it switches to the other side.

Since your second hub is not rotating, the machine thinks the end of tape has been reached, and it is trying to reverse the direction of the tape and play the other side.

I'm not sure if there is a way around this. Perhaps an adapter that has a short tape installed, in the form of a continuous loop.!

 

I should have added that if no movement is detected after attempting to switch sides, the deck assumes the tape must be jammed, and then ejects the cassette.