I had 3 CD's in my Shaker500 when I was retuning.. At one point I also disconnected the battery for 30 secs before retuning as well. Why? I don't know..

Anyways, now my Shaker500 cannot "Initialize" the CDs. It plays radio fine, but whenever I try to switch to CD mode (or whenever I open the door and get in the car), I hear the motors trying to cycle through the CD's... and eventually it says "Error." I can't even unload any of the CD's I had in there, because pressing the Eject button causes it to go through the "Initializing" - then "Error" phases.

I'm sure my dealer will take care of this if I take it in, but I was wondering if anybody else had experienced this and knows of a solution. I just installed my CAI on Friday and if I can fix this on my own without removing the CAI / returning to dealer, that would be great.

Thanks..

 

Sorry I dont have a fix for you, but I had the exact same thing happen to me when I had my shaker replaced by the dealer some tsb or something or other.


well the head unit they replaced it with did the exact same thing, before I even picked it up, so I had to bring it back the next day and had to wait for them to mail me my cds, all the ford dealerships use one shop here for all their radio needs.

 

Just a guess, but I'd try disconnecting the battery again for a while, then reconnect and see if that makes any difference.

 

My Shaker 500 didn't have any issues like that when I put my CAI on. Not sure what to tell you!

 

you screwed it up by disconnecting the battery, tune has nothing to do with it. The radio itself has its own software and is sensitive to power drains. when my alternator died my Shaker died, been there before.

The dealer will replace it under warranty if they can't reset it and they will mail your CDs back

 

Agh, ok. Thanks.

I was kinda hoping that the purpose of the CD Initializing feature was to detect how many CD's are there every time power is returned to the device... Arghh...

 

As mentioned above, I would try disconnecting the battery for about 30min. or so and see if that does it. You don't have any thing to loose by trying, if it doesn't work then make an appointment @ the dealer.

 

If the issue was caused by initially disconnecting the battery as dustindu4 suggested, why would disconnecting the battery again possibly correct it?

 

The technical description is "computer brain fart". Disconnecting the battery will reset the cars various computer and electronic devices, it essentially is like rebooting a computer.

 

Sure, I understand that a battery disconnection might induce a "reboot", however, dustindu4 makes reference to the fact that taking the power away might leave the unit in a state of permanent confusion, resulting in a potential replacement...hence, my question about why something sensitive to power being removed would be corrected by removing it again.

Thoughts?

 

Hey, dustindu4, what would a dealer do to "reset"?

 

Yeah, I've tried disconnecting the battery numerous times to "reset" it. All it does is try to initialize again, upon receiving power. I think the issue is that it's supposed to detect how many CD's are in the changer every time it receives power after being disconnected, but for some reason, if there are CD's inside, it can get confused.

I'll take off the CAI and bring it to the dealer next week..

 

They hook it up to the world diagnostic system and override it. The radio has it's own mini computer inside it.

They have to do the same thing when you put a different Shaker in your car. The Shakers have to be programmed to work on any car. You can't buy one off ebay and put it in, won't work. When I got my radio replaced, they had to put it in for me because when I put it in myself it wouldnt turn on

 

I disconnected my battery when I installed my CAI. The CD's were in my Shaker 500. Reconnected again and it just took a couple of seconds longer cranking time to get the engine started. No Shaker issues except I did have to reset some of the stereo settings again.

 

My Shaker did the 'initialization' thing a while back when my battery died but I didn't have any problems with it when I replaced the battery...wonder what causes only some of them to fail when they lose power? Could it be the gradual loss of power like from a battery dying vs. sudden interruption of power when it's disconnected?

 

Not sure... this wasn't the first time I've disconnected my battery. I did it several times before when I was installing my aftermarket amp/sub... and it was fine. Then again, I don't think I had any CD's in there at the time. I don't know. I guess the lesson here is "if you are ever planning on disconnecting the battery or expect the battery to die anytime soon, remove all CD's." Nice one, Ford.

 

I learned a neat trick the other day if you have to change the battery. Hook up the cables to a battery jump box before you disconnect them. You know, the ones that have a battery inside and some jumper cables? That keeps electrical power to the car while you disconnect the cables.

 

Cool, good idea!

 

Hit it with a hammer

 

I would at least gently tap the radio or do what a friend did.

Remove the radio (there should be enough cable to pull it away from the dash except for the antenna cable it's tight) and slap the side of it like an old TV when it is initializing.

Be careful holding the radio though.