I recently bought a Ford cd player that came out of a 93 Cobra, to replace the factory cassette player in my 93 GT.

I put the cd player in and everytime i adjust the bass maybe 4 bars up, i get this LOUD speaker pop from the left front dash speaker. I took the speaker out to check the wires and speaker. Tried the cd player without the speaker. Now the left rear 1/4 panel speaker pops. I check the wires and speaker and its all good. I unhook that speaker. Now the left front door speaker pops, i left it hooked up and took a break. BTW, this is using the cd players radio function.

I still have the factory Premium sound amp and dash speakers. The door and 1/4 panels use Pioneers. I also have a Pioneer Premier amp (i think a 160w) that powers a box with 2 8" (bridged) and an 8" tube. Thinking they may be the problem i removed the fuse for the Pioneer amp. Right now the only speaker on the left side still hooked up is the door speaker. I still have a pop. Everytime i unhook a speaker, the pop moves to the next speaker. At one point the cd players cd function turned itself on and the motor was spinning away and clicked a few times as if it were trying to eject a cd which lasted maybe 5 seconds. The cd player was empty.

Now for the cd players cd function. The speakers pop there to. Once again, at one point the cd players cd function started up, without a cd. This time its motor not only spun and clicked, but it wouldnt stop until i turned the power off.

I tried adjusting the bass higher and after it was past the 1/2 way mark, it stopped popping. My factory cassette player never did any of this!

Is the cd player junk? Who else has the factory cd player? Does yours do this? The operating guide with my owners manual doesnt cover troubleshooting. I have never heard a cd player acting like this before.

WTH is going on? In the meantime i put the cd player back in the shipping box and ready to return it. The cassette player is back in.

Please help!

The cd player plays cds just fine, but that popping, and the player running when its empty is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

 

When it pops, it only pops when i push the button, and only once per push.

 

my first question is that I am sure ford didn't make cds until the 94 model change but I could be wrong and its not really important. It would be helpfull if I knew which deck you have, can you take a pic?

"I still have the factory Premium sound amp and dash speakers. The door and 1/4 panels use Pioneers. I also have a Pioneer Premier amp (i think a 160w) that powers a box with 2 8" (bridged) and an 8" tube" - I would probably pass the amp which is easily done, but that depends on what deck you have again. I am also afraid to know how you have 3 different subs wired to one amp but.

 

usually the popping noise is from a ground that isnt properly grounded to metal, only partially. it is usually the factor amp that isnt to the ground correctly, or it maybe the ground to the new deck. My after market in my 05 pops, but its just something i deal with. I redid the grounds and it didnt completely correct it.

It also could be the factory amp though. You can replace that and see what happens.

 

Below are pics of the cd player in question, as well as the factory cassette player, taken from the operating guide that came with my owners manual. I also incuded a pic of the connections used by both the cd player and cassette. Both the cd player and cassette player use the right center terminal. The cd players right top terminal is where the dummy plug is, the cassette player does not have a dummy plug. The right bottom terminal is unused on both players.

 

I am currently checking ALL my wiring. Im guessing by 'ground wire to the deck', youre referring to the plug connector? The plug and the wires thru it are tight and no corrosion. As for the factory amp having a ground issue, everything is good using the factory cassette (no popping of any kind). I keep coming back to the cd player being the problem. The seller said it may need a blast of air. How would dust be the problem??? My aftermarket amp and subs are not the problem as a friend suggested, as the popping is still there with no power to any of them.

As for the cd players motor coming on without a cd in it, im stuck on that one. That and the popping bugs me to no end.

 

yeah the plug connector ground. Maybe you need to try an aftermarket cd player. All i know is mine pops too but i just had to get over it. Because the cd player uses more power than the cassette player does is all could be too much for the factory amp. it might be good to replace it

 

Dont want an aftermarket cd player. I want the interior stock, including the head unit. Only aftermarket stuff is the amp running the subs in the hatch. Could i just remove the stock amp and run everything thru my aftermarket amp. Or does the head unit need the factory amp for other stuff? Did the cd player have a dedicated amp from Ford? meaning the cassette and cd used different amps?

Any Cobra owners having this problem with a factory cd player? This thing wasnt cheap.

 

i believe it does have a different amp. And you can try to run everything through your aftermarket amp, but the big thing you lose in having the stock cd player is control. you cant adjust your amp settings and speaker settings and etc.

i just know they ran the amp because of the 8 speaker system and it requires and amp to power that much because the head unit alone wont put out enough power for it. How large is the amp you have running to your subs now. because also you have to worry about producing enough power to run the subs and all the rest of your speakers through that one amp. If its not large enough it wont run everything correctly.

 

Checked the wiring and found nothing wrong. I have 2 8" subs hooked up to an old Pioneer Premier GM-X442, which is listed as a 70w x 2/160w on the box (lost the manual). Below that reads 70w x 70w max. Both 8" subs are bridged with a 3rd 8" bass tube wired with the other 2 subs. If i recall, the subs are 200w? each and the tube is a 300w. Not sure on the subs, but the tube is 300.

So the cd player does need a dedicated amp for a 93 Mustang???