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CD Player with dust in it: How should I "clean" the CD player?lens cleaner etc..

Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 13, 2002 at 00:00

Guy

I have a Nissan Patrol GU. 1999 Model brand new. After 40000 km the CD player started to skip some tracks.
I had it for repair under waranty twice and each time it takes Clarion 3 to 6 weeks to send back to Brisbane.
The Clarion is the orginal CN465 which comes with the GU2.8 Diesel. There is not doubt the skipping is coming
from an accumulation of "bull dust" inside the CD player. I hace heard about CD lens cleaner.
Are they really efficients? What else can I use. Any idea would be appreciated. Just the idea of removing this CN465
from the consol is already a pain which takes 20 minutes. HELP? help?
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AnswerID: 5645   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 13, 2002 at 00:00

Member - Sam replied:

Guy, I purchased one of the laser lense cleaner disks for my home stereo after it got a bit of dust in it. I can certainly recommend it. It worked for me. The disks have a little brush on the play surface, when you play the CD it brushes over the lense, dusting any dirt that has built up on the lense. You may need to run it a few times to get the dust off. cheers, Sam.
Reply 1 of 3
AnswerID: 5646   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 13, 2002 at 00:00

Smutty replied:

Guy, I repair electronic equipment for a living and all we ever use is a cotton bud. Useful if you can see the laser. Its actually a small lens about the size of the end of a pen that the laser shines through, when this get clouded with dust your problem occurs. You can apply light moisture to the bud by breathing on it first for stubborn dust. If you need to you can get long cotton buds from an electronic retailer, possibly evenbleepSmiths. The CD cleaning disks use the brush as stated above. Just be sure the bristles are not too stiff as this can scratch the lens and you will have the same promlem, permenantly. Cheers Smutty
Reply 2 of 3
FollowupID: 2455   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 14, 2002 at 00:00

Guy posted:

Sam, Smutty thanks for your answer. The model is a CLARION CN465. I used a CDROM lens cleaner but it is impossible to reach the lens
even with a long cotton bud. I took the combo CDROM/Cassette/Radio from the chassis and got the CDROM reader out. It is a connector
plug in system. But even then I could not get to the lens. I saw also plenty of dust on the mechanism and I saw dry grease every where.
( The original grease on some of the metal to metal sections) had dried out or had dirt mixed with it.
Do you know if Clarion Australia has an exchange system for their CDROM. It seems nearly impossible to get in touch with them?
The other probloem that I can see is a SERIOUS design fault in the installation of the CDROM/Cassette/Radio. The CDROM/Cassette/Radio
has NO protection against dust in the dash board compartiment. This compartiment is FULL of bull dust. I think it should be a layer of foam to
stop the "bull dust" circulating between the CD and the back of the dash board.
What do you think? What foam would you recommend?
FollowUp 1 of 1
AnswerID: 5695   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 14, 2002 at 00:00

Smutty replied:

I don't know if Clarion have an exchange, but from my dealings with these companies, I have found A) most items are throw away and B) If you can get bspares they are about 75% of the total cost of the unit! The grease is normally pretty dry, it forms a slight crust after a while but if you have dirt in it you should wipe clean and replace with new grease. (Light grease thats fairly slipery. we use pink zinc but they don't make that any more) I haven't seen the vehical but any protection from dust is a bonus, however keep in mind cooling of the unit and make sure there is still some ventilation. Built in amps can creat a lot of heat. You could see this by fins at the back of the unit or a large surface area of metal. If you do use foam remember two things 1) dense foam is better as it does not hold dust and 2) Foam desindergrates as it get holder if touched(or vibrated)esspecially if subjected to heat for long periods. This will not be a problem for 5 or so years but it would be worthwhile getting some advice from the foam distributor. Cheers Smutty
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