Hey all,

On the way to visit my bro in Wisconsin my wife pressed the eject button to eject all CDs. The first one came out fine (all six slots were filled), and then nothing. The CD display still showed the 1 slot as being filled, nothing was flashing, and the entire stereo was locked up. No button pressing registered, it couldn't be shut off, and even turning off the ignition still left the CD display up, saying "CD-EJ ALL". It was crazy.

We pulled all fuses in the fuse box in the cabin, and the CD player still did not reset. When we got to my brother's place (three hours of silence! DOH!) he helped me pull the main 80A fuse in the engine compartment fuse box (I had no tools with me). That finally did it...interrupted power to the CD player. We put it back on and the CD player made some whirring noises and then stopped with a blank screen (as it should have since the car was off). I then turned on the car and ejected the CDs and everything worked fine. We loaded it again and ejected all again as a test and it worked with no problem.

Very weird. Anyone else have a CD ejection lock-up? Well, if anyone does, just pull the main fuse and it appears to reset the CD player correctly. It worked fine all the way home and worked fine today. Tenacious D reigns supreme!

sutekh

Or maybe just pull the battery cable. :)

Sure, though I called the Subaru dealer back in Des Moines, and he didn't know a whole lot. He said removing the battery cable might cause "the car to drive badly", and when I said the internet forum says an ECU reset requires long periods without the battery being attached he said "I wouldn't trust anything I read on the Internet"... He obviously doesn't know the caliber of folks here on the i-club.

But yeah, while my bro and I were discussing we came to the conclusion that removing the main fuse basically shots down the whole car...I can't imagnie anything being unfused on the car, is there?

sutekh

I don't think the alternator has a fuse. ;)

The tool at the dealership you spoke to needed to put you back on hold and finish cleaning the toilets. He apparently doesn't realize that the ECU reset is NOT done with the car running. I've read that it isn't really a good thing to disconnect the battery with the engine running. The voltage regulator reads that as a discharged battery and sets the alternator into overdrive, burning it out.

Most receivers have a reset button on them somewhere... It is possible that you'd have to pull the deck out to get at it though, so pulling that main fuse or the battery cable would be easier.

Sometimes you just have to wonder how people get jobs in the auto industry when
a) they don't know jack, and
b) they don't care.

Well, in his defense he was very nice and sounded knowledgable overall, he just was a bit timid in relation to the WRX. He basically said he was still figuring them out himself. Just a case of the old if-I-don't-know-exactly-what-is-going-on-I-will-act-like-I-don't-know-anything syndrome. Not sure why people act that way...a car is a car, and I wouldn't consider the WRX any more complicated than anything else, at least not when it comes to simple matters of power, stereos, and ECUs...

Ah well, alls well that ends well, and the stereo still seems to be working fine!

sutekh