How do I get a penny out of my car CD player?
Monday, April 11th, 2005 - 4:28pm
Here is the scenario: We let our kids (1 and 3) play in our brand new 2005 Toyota Matrix. They like to pretend they are driving sometimes while we're outside. This morning my wife goes to play a CD and hears a horrible scraping sound. The disc ejects and there is a nice uniform scratch about 1 inch in from the rim, all the way around. So she tries it again, same thing.
"Honey," she says to our son, "you didn't put anything in the CD player did you?"
"No"
"Are you sure?"
"No"
"What did you put in there?"
"I just put in a penny to see what would happen!"
So...it is a front loading CD player built into the dash...any help?
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
A thin magnet?
I do know the players come out and you can take them apart, but you basically have to rip your whole dash out is what I heard in the matrix.
Oooooo, that sucks man. I had a similar experience with a penny falling into a 6-disc car changer, but it was a relatively minor endeavor to pry it out with a pair of screwdrivers. I have no frickin'' clue how you''d go about removing it from one of those front-loading jobbies.
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
I got some change out of a front-loading car CD player with two popsicle sticks, some double-sided tape, and a lot of patience.
"Raise high the black flags, my children."
-- Gebhard von Blucher.
Magnets don''t pick up pennies right? Even if they did, sticking a magnet into some electronics can''t be a good idea.
Rogue
Mage
Shaman
I think this sounds promising...I mean I can''t reall mess it up much more
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
I would not recommend any magnets.
Depending on the width of the drive, you might be able to get it with some tweezers or thin chopsticks. If it''s scratching up the player, it may have half-fallen into something as well - maybe you can shove it a bit further down out of the way?
If all that fails, it sounds like you might just want to remove it from the dash, open it up (beware angry capacitors) and manual remove the penny. If you don''t want to do that, the dealship might do it for free, since it''s so new. Good luck with that, though.
Yeah the inside is zinc with a very thin copper wrapper.
The popsicle stick method worked with a friend of mine too so I second that.
Do you ever walk alone like a drifter in the dark?
I don''t know Alexander, I know I got some change out of my dryer once with a magnet, but it might have been the silver variety.
hubb, I asked a friend with a matrix and he thinks it''s not difficult to get the stereo out, some screws and it should slide out he thinks. If the popsicle thing doesn''t work, try it. Or call up your local stereo shop and ask them how hard it is.
Pick up the car, turn it upside down, and shake it.
Mercury's been in retrograde most of the week. It's like a full moon with a side of kicked-in-the-nuts. -- H.P. Lovesauce
Darn you beat me to it.
A strong vacuum, a plastic bag (to enhance suction) and patience.
" Did my love gun hit you?" -Gaald to Certis while playing Sins of the Solar Empire.
Take it to a pawn shop.... You might get more than just a penny though!
Popsicle stick sounds like your best bet so far... how much of an aperture do you have to work with? Can you see anything at all in there? Have you considered all the wonders and joy of a satelite radio system or perhaps an MP3 player?
Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
Sell your insolent children and buy a new Matrix.
WII FRIEND CODE: 6936 4764 8384 6058
Gaming / PC Tech Blog: www.blastprocessing.net
Xbox Live: Legion SB / PSN: Legion_SB / Steam: legion028 / Twitter: legion
Be somewhat wary of trying to remove the player yourself. Don''t some cars have antitheft devices that destroy the CD player/stereo when they are improperly removed (read - by thieves)?
Well now there is a penny and a strip of double sided tape in my CD player
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
Umm... I say try a condom. Not that it''ll work, I just want to see you try to explain a rubber stuck in your CD player.
"THE HELL ASS BALLS." - Prederick, expressing frustration in the time-honored way.
How about something like a couple of dentists picks? You might be able to get one of those under the penny and the other above it. I am sure you could get the tape out that way.
Yeah, I''m going to echo that. Call the dealership first.
My parents bought a Tundra and have taken it in for a couple of similiar little things, all of which the dealership fixed for free.
*edit*
I''m not sure which dealership options you went with, but in my parents case they spilled some Pepsi on their leather interior, and when the dealership was unable to get the stain out of the material they replaced the leather on the seat free of charge.
Little things like that make such a huge difference when it comes to how a person views a dealership and even a brand.
I''m pretty sure after watching how well things have gone for them with their truck that my next vehicle will be a Toyota.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
Bwhahahahahaa.... *ahem* I apologize. I''ve probably just karmad my way into a peanut butter sandwich in the PS2....
Now, is the time my sprockets, when we take the car to the dealership.
I''ve never had a Toyota, so I can''t speak to what they''ll fix, but I know Chevy and Mercury are both pretty great about being willing to do small stuff like that for free, especially when it''s new, and you''re still in that ""I love this car, I love this dealership, I''ll recommend them"" honeymoon window.
*Legion* wrote:
Maybe I should have specified that you must wrap the double-sided tape all the way around the stick so that the tape doesn''t come off.
"Raise high the black flags, my children."
-- Gebhard von Blucher.
Apply a sticky coating to a blank CD and insert it into the player. Hopefully it''ll pick up whatever''s stuck in there.
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"If ads put your sanity to the test
come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
how rock can be commercial-free!
'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
So you are recomending gluing a CD into the player? Brilliant! I envision the penny scraping huge gobs of adhesive materials off and depositing them on the fricken Laser.
BTW When you call the dealership, have your child crying in the background... Not the ""I want a goddamn ice-cream"" cry, the ""Oh My God, Please don''t kill me for accidentally ruining this really expensive thing!"" Explain how your kid is just heartbroken and busts into tears whenever you take him to school because you can''t listen to Raffi anymore and he thinks (knows) it''s his fault! If you coach your child correctly, the wails should increase dramatically if you repeat a price. For example they say: Bring it on in, there will be a ninety dollar service fee and two hundred fitty for the stereo replacement. You say ""Three Hundred and Fourty Dollars?"" Cue ""Oh God! They''re Going to Sell My Stuffed Barney Doll, Please Don''t Take My Birthday Away"" crying. If they wont do it for you... maybe they''ll do it for ""the children."" Also, it''s always good to teach children the finer points of negotiation!
Just a thought as I battle some insomnia at 4:48 in the AM.
Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
I just need to convince them that may son plays with double sided tape in the car too...damn kids
Thanks for all the advice. I plan to take it to the dealership, but I doubt it will be fixed for free since they''re all jerks over there. This is the same dealership where I brought my Subaru in to fix an oil leak, a gas sensor, and something else, to the tune of $1300. Then I get home and lo and behold, I still have an oil leak! So I demand that they fix it and they told me it wasn''t an ""obvious"" place for a leak so they didn''t fix that one. To be nice they say they will do it for half price and quote me $350 (i.e. $700 regular price). I bring it to a real mechanic and he fixes it for $150.
The only reason I bought my new car there was because it was teh only Toyota dealership around and I had a friend who was selling in the showroom and thought he could use the business.
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
I''m kinda ashamed to say that when I told my wife about the tape in the player her first response was, ""you wrapped it all the way around the stick, right?""
To which I replied, ""Um, you''re pretty. Come to bed.""
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
it might be alittle risky but i got another idea i think the glu idea was on the right track except for the glu part . get a blank disk make a disk and cut U on on it and try that. improvements:
-tape the top of the U so it create a slot if the U catch the penny it would then enter the slot.
- you should also not use a full U to the rim and make a ledge on it with a file so it would slide into the groove.
since the cd player doesn''t know the CD is bad until it tries to play it . it should spin and get the silly penny out either catch it or throw it out by forcein a random direction or path of least resistance).
btw if it works please tell me so i can patent this and make a ton of money j/k
Sounds good to me.
Anyway, yeah, no magnets. Some players actually use magnets to hold and move certain components AIR, so you don''t want to put magnets in there.
CHEWING GUM!
Wait, no.. not that either.
I''d recommend just taking it to the dealership or a shop before you have to convince them that your kids play with chopsticks, tweasers, clamps, needlenosed pliers, clotheshangers, etc. in the car. Even if you can get the penny out, the player might already have been damaged (or you might damage it getting the thing out).
I think the biggest lesson is this. Pennies are worthless. Take all pennies out of your car (so next time you''ll be asking how to remove a nickel).
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore