2003 FX35 stock stereo won't play cd's (Help a newb out please)

cstanton01

Member
Location
Guam 671
Car
2003 Infiniti FX35 RWD
Name
Chris
How's it going. I recently (within the past week) purchased a used Fx35. It's an 03, base model (I would assume, cloth seats, no bose or sunroof, etc). Well, come to find out after driving away, the cd player does not work. Spoke to the dealer and got the run around, so it looks like this one is on me.

When I put a cd into any of the disc slots all I get is very low gurgling. I can hear what seems to be the correct song, but very very low, very distorted and I cannot change the volume one bit. It's weird. Has anyone had any similar issues? Also, how hard is it to replace the cd changer? Would that even fix the issue? I'm just not familiar with the huge radio/ac/pc/whatever middle console parts guts.

I'm using a FM module to play my phone through the FM stereo right now (thank god for old school work arounds), but it's just not the quality I want you know.

Has anyone hooked up an aux plug to their stock 03 stereo? Any walk through on this? I have tried searching on here for answers to all this, but just couldn't find anything.

Again, any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Btw, just for you older folks... I have a cassette player in mine, and it still works! I found some cassettes at the flea market this weekend and couldn't resist. The quality is better than my FM module! Haha.

Thanks!
 
Thanks for the links. I just got around to ordering one.

I know everyone says to look around in the DIY before asking questions like this, but I have tried looking already and am unable to find it. Does anyone know where the DIY is for taking out the cd changer? I found a place on island willing to repair it for cheap and I miss my cd's.

Edit: After rewording the search numerous times I was able to find a write up and some images to at least remove the instrument panel assembly, but has anyone removed the actual cd changer itself? I'm assuming even though I am removing the cd changer everything else will still work, right? You never know what electronics are tied to what.



 
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thank you so much la_fx35. That was a great find. I'm now extremely torn on whether or not I should even bother with the cd changer at all now tho. I've been doing a bunch of research on my model which is the base of the base models and apparently my cd changer does not play mp3's, period. Soooo, that kind of defeats the purpose of playing cd's since all of my burnt cd's have multiple albums in mp3 format. Bleh. So it looks like I will leave the cd changer broken and go for the Grom usb/aux add on instead. As much as I love the FX 35, I am getting bummed out I can't just easily swap out the audio unit! I might have to just get creative like some of the other guys have done on here. Thanks again!

Once you remove the dash console panel, you will see the head unit at the bottom of the stack. Here is some pictures for reference.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/05-INFINITI...t=Car_Audio_Video&hash=item51b17d47d8&vxp=mtr
 
Does the '05 CD player play MP3's? If it's compatible and it reads MP3"s, it would solve the problem? I know my '07 plays MP3's, so if the '05 does and it fits in you're '03, I'd think you'd be good.
 
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