Cmdr_Keen9

I got a CD player (eBay - give me abuse!). I installed the CD player in the trunk and connected the FO cable and power (did not use the tel cable) and plugged in the "same" cable in the HU. The CD player is not recognized when I push the CD button on the HU. There is a CD cassette in the player and it does not eject when the eject button is pushed (button does light up momentarily). I figured I needed MB service to "program the loop" but I find out today, they want my left leg, my first born and my retirement account to put a computer on the loop to check it out ... rot! So I'm here for help! (I've been sitting on this thing for a year or more now ... madam doesn't drive her chariot very much).
Do I have junk instead of a CD player and that's the problem?
Did I install something bassakwards? Suggestions for check-out?
Does the FO loop in fact need some kind of initialization? And how does one do that without our good friends at MB?
It's a fun car and we don't need the CD player but with the top down I gotta keep up with everyone else at the stop light and blast out my Chopin!
Thanks
Dean

finalxgohan

I am not sure exactly where you are from, but if you go to best buy they will do it for a really cheap price. I got mine done for 20 dollars. not including any parts i brought myself.

DickB

Did you reconfigure the fibre optics? Look here:
http://slk32.com/pages/cdinstall/cdinstall.html

Your optics may have been factory configured to form a loop from head unit to CD location to telephone location back to head unit. There are extra fibre cables installed to reconfigure in other ways. You need to make a loop from head unit to CD changer back to head unit.

I found that my car's fibre lables did not seem to match the labels on slk32.com. I had to reconfigure "manually", by shining a flashlight down the fibres to locate the right ones.

If you set the fibre loop up correctly, you don't need the dealer to configure anything. It will work.

Cmdr_Keen9

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try doing the job myself and then consider Best Buy. In any event, it sound more economical than my friendly MB dealership!

CopperDesigno

I followed the thread that DickB posted when I installed my CD changer and it worked perfectly. Most likely that is your issue.

Cmdr_Keen9

I checked my system and tried to follow DickB's directions. When I first installed the CD player I did the things suggested: The red and white fiber-optic bundles are in the plug (can fit only one way). I tried shining a flashlight at one end of the bundle to see it on the other and, sure enough, I see light. Illuminate the red end at the CD player and see the light on the white end at head unit. And vice versa.
The fact that the head unit says it can't find the CD player, led me to wonder if there was some setting or settings required by the vehicle computer system. Or "I got junk for a player" and work from that angle.
Does any one know how to "check out" the CD player without a second vehicle with the fiber-optic system?
Thanks.

CopperDesigno

did the player make any noises when you plugged the cables. Like search for a magazine or CD?

DickB

"There is a CD cassette in the player and it does not eject when the eject button is pushed (button does light up momentarily)."

Sorry; I missed that on the first go around. That points to a bad changer. Go back to the seller and see what response you get - it's worth a try. BTW there is no easy way to check out a changer other than plugging it into a known good system.

Many of us have successfully installed changers with no dealer initialization required.