My CD changer (A09 Blaupunkt, 5 disc unit) broke ages ago. The front panel just kept flashing alternate red then green etc etc. Reading other reports, I'm not the only one who has seen this.

Well I finally got round to taking it apart, to see if I could fix it. Today I can listen to CDs again !

What was the problem ? Well the tray that holds and moves (up and down) a selected CD was out of alignment. It wasn't flat any more, but dipped in a corner.

This puzzled me, because the tray moves up and down on three separate screw threads (like a nut riding up and down a bolt, when the bolt is turned). How did they get out of sync ? But they were, only slightly though. One screw thread is connected via an arm to a sliding resistor, the problem was, that one of the other screws was forcing the tray to hit the top of the casing, before this one was. So it didn't think the tray had moved enough. It then tried to drive the motor still to raise the tray, but I guess it has a motor over current protection, and once this tripped (because it was driving the tray against a wall so to speak), it shut down and flashed the front panel.

Syncing up the three screw threads was a bit awkward at first, but not really difficult if you are OK with mechanics.

I will post some photos, and guide later this evening. I'm out of time now.

OK. So you've read this far ! To align the tray, you first have to take the casing off. The top metal cover just pops off, use a screwdriver to help lever it up. Then its a case of undoing all the case screws. 2 on the sides, one on the rear. The front panel cover is held on with 2 screws on either side, then unclips. To undo the ribbon cable, the cable is locked in places by plastic push in pieces on the sides of the cable socket. With your finger you can pull out the locking pieces slighty (don't remove them !), then the cable will just fall out of the socket. You must do this, because you can just pull the cable out, but you'll have a hell of a time getting it back in.

How time to have a look at the tray alignment. See the photo called "problem.JPG". In my case the top left screw in the picture was allowing the tray to hit the stop before the reference screw (see photo "calibrate_to_top.JPG"). I had to turn the top left screw, to bring the tray down in the corner, but I didn't want to turn the other screws of course. In the picture "paddle.JPG" find the same part on your changer. There are 2 of them, make sure you get the right one (though its not the end of the world if you push the other one in by accident). When you push on this paddle, you remove the drive to the gears which move the tray. You can now manually by hand, turn the white gear near this paddle, and move the tray. But this moves all the screws ... we want to stop on moving. See the photo "top_screws.JPG". This photo shows a top view, showing the screws that hold the top casing onto the spindles of the screws. If you undo these, and the "side_lift_screw.JPG", the small black one, you can then very carefully push the top casing up enough so that you can lift the screws up enough so they don't engage the white gears which turn them.

Now its a case of holding the paddle in, move the drive gear, pushing which ever screw you don't want to rotate, until you have aligned the tray. Doing this is a bit fiddly, but not impossible.

You might need to do this several times until you get it right. I calibrated the tray, so that the screw which has the sliding resistor connected, always hit the top end stop before the other screws.

Now once you've done all this, and are happy with the alignment, you can test it without screwing the casing on. You can lay it in the bottom tray, and reconnect the ribbon cable (front panel) so you can see if it now works in the car. Once its working, you can then fit it all back together and enjoy your music again !

Good luck !

thanks for detailed description, however, in my case, even after aligning all three sides the header is not moving up or down. And all the lights are being flashed.

Besides, I looked at the liver and it always disengaged now.

Any idea?

Best Regards,
Saime