I know there's been a fair amount of discussion regarding the factory in dash CD head unit not playing some burned CD's- I thought I had a similar problem with my CD player, but after some experimentation with different media (data vs. audio CD's), I found out that there is a difference regarding the type of media you use. I bought Memorex 1x-32x CDr's for audio, and burned them at a low speed (2x). The CD player picks up the tracks normally, and plays them well. I know the jury is out regarding the value of the extra cost of audio CDr's, but it worked for me. I have Adaptec CD Creator 4.0, which is an older program. All of my older burned CDr's are rated for speeds of 16x or less, and these play fine in my deck. I also tried using Sony 1x-32x & Staples 1x-48x data CDr's, and the deck took a long time to pick up the track before playing it, or didn't play it at all. The audio CD may be worth the extra cost if you don't have to waste data discs on material that won't play in your car deck. The data discs I made play normally in all of my other CD players, including my girlfriend's 2001 Hyundai Elantra CD player.

Also, consider getting a CD drive cleaner ( the one with the small brushes on the playable surface- made by Endust ~ $13.00 at Office Max). Clean both your read & burner drives in your computer as well as the car CD player.

If you have this problem, I hope it helps.

 

Just a heads up to everyone:

Yes, there has been endless discussion about what works and what does not.

Heres the deal. Memorex, Sony, Verbatim, and all of the other CD-R vendors do not make their own CD's. They cycle through a list of manufacturers that they have avaliable to them. This is why the 1st 50 pack of Memorex Blues worked in your TL but not the 2nd 50 pack. CD-R vendors CONSTANTLY change manufacturer plants. So while you may find one that works, it may not work next tim u buy them. It sucks. I know there is a company out there thats sold retail that makes their own CD-R's but i dont remember who it was. Anyone know? Maby we could get lucky and they would ALWAYS work in our TL!!!!

 

Look, on my 99TL HU didn't play cdrs, I took it to the dealer under warrenty because someone on here recommended this to me, they replaced it with a new HU after I compalined enough.....now it plays everything at every burned speed/every brand. Some1 else did the same thing and now he can play any cdrs too. Don't give yourself headaches by trying to think of different brand/burn speed etc. If you are under warrenty....have your dealer replace the HU. My old HU didn't play cdrs even when it was brand new.....cleaning it WILL NOT HELP!!! If the dealer saids "CDRS are bigger then regular cds and will not play them correctly.....this is BS because they don't want to replace your HU. Some (I should say most) HU are just plain defective and far as I know every new HU they replaced works. NUFF SAID....go replace your broken azz HU if you want to play cdrs.