chilirue

I need some assistance in purchasing a unit A203 820 90 89, what are some considerations if I want to purchase an used one...The changer is intermittently saying that it doesn't recognize the unit and based on my research and the age of the car it may just be time to replace it...

betrezra

I'm interested in this info too, I have a 2004 clk55 with only 26K miles.... and my cd changer will randomly make a chirp sound and stop. I turn off the stero, and back on... and it works again for 1-4 mo's.... then will do it again. I'm guessing a replacement is in order.

I did see several on fleabay ranging from $120 - $600..... biggest factor is to be sure to buy the right one.

GL.

MarcusF

Have you considered a digital media receiver? A new reciever will allow you to use a twenty dollar 16GB thumb drive which will never skip, doesn't degrade, and will hold 150 hours of music recorded at 192 Kbps (that's 50% higher than CD quality). A 64GB drive holds over 600 hours.

If you're wondering, yes you can retain the steering wheel controls, no you won't have to cut any factory wires, yes they can play using your Bose or HK amps & speakers (a converter will change the HU signal), and yes the average DIY stereo installer can do the install. Heres what I did, and this is why I did it. If I had to it again I'd consider a touchscreen NAV unit that plays DVDs for the wife on road trips. A word of advice - with my unit, I can navigate through folders. A co-worker bought some sub $100 heap of junk that won't. You really don't want to have to navigate hundreds of hours of music or commentaries sequentially. Thats almost as painful as dealing with CDs.

Alternatively, there are plenty of factory changers on e-bay for far less than the dealer list of $1100. Even with a discount, a 2038209089 is still $850.

chilirue

@betrezra, yes that is the same thing that has been happening to me, but since the process that you stated worked I felt hey what a small price to pay until I get around to fixing it...well that stopped when I was on my way back from a town in France, a long and quiet drive...in traffic..YUCK!

@MarcusF, I will have to definitely look into that I wanted to see if I could get an adapter to use my iPod or thumb drive so that is a better solution I'll so more research and hit you back up...do you work for an automotive repair shop or dealer?

MarcusF

I don't work in the auto repair or hi-fi industry. Everything I did was at home in my garage using standard tools as a DIY project.

If you have an iPod, Alpine and several other manufactures can read and control the iPod from the head unit or steering wheel controls and in the case of Alpine, display the album art on the head unit. Its a nice feature.