My Ford 6006E CD player displays "CD error 3" when I try to load a CD. I have disconnected the battery to reset it but this did not work. How can I fix it without spending much cash ?

Alun P., May 2005

Thanks Graham just followed your instructions and took 7 CDs out. Works a treat now. Removal keys were only £1.50. One of the reasons car was so cheap

Mondy, July 2017

Press load and eject this puts the unit in check CD mode. When it's running this check I gave it a bang on the console to loosen it up. It then found one disk and ejected it. Now it's perfect.

Clifton Manley, October 2016

my 2005 gallaxy 6006e keeps failing and say's enter code weather i'm playing the radio or cds I have taken out all the c.ds but after 10min's it will stop and say enter code on the cd side with no cds in ?

brian hughes, December 2013

If you have stuck CDs or the unit says "No Discs" but you know the cartridge is loaded, try this...Remove the unit, disconnect all leads, including aerial, and then gently turn the unit upside down, DO NOT shake it; just gently turn the unit over in your hands a couple of times. Reconnect the leads and turn the unit on, hopefully your unit will be working again!!

SofucST170, August 2013

Fault due to more than 1 CD being loaded into same slot. Got to be careful to select each slot, then load.

1. Remove Radio (you'll need those removal clips £4.50)
2. Detach power and aerials leads
3. Remove radio unit completely out of bay
4. You'll need to remove top cover:-
4.1. Remove two Star screws at back and then lift top off
4.2 You'll see the CDs that were not being ejected
4.3 Don't remove them out the back (not enough room)
4.4 You will remove them front / top (NOT through the load bay)
4.5 You'll see two tiny copper coloured Philips screws holding the loading bar. Remove these.
4.6 Lift the loading bar as high as it will go. You don't need to detach springs on either side.
4.7 There will be enough clearance to carefully remove each CD out through top / front.
4.8 Replace coppers screws
4.9 Replace top and reinsert Star screws
5. Attach power and aerial leads
6. Put radio unit back into bay
7. Switch on & enter your unit code
8. Insert new CD
9. Enjoy your music once again.

I followed the instructions in most of the posts on this site. The job was successful and straightforward with the right tools and software (if you need to find your radio code). I've summarised the key stages above to provide a clear step-by-step.

Hope this helps you.

Graham Goater, April 2012

anybody have the wire harness wire guide for this?

I picked it up...without any wire/connectors.
(2 needed)..and am hoping to wire it for my shop ..will I also need a 'code"? to operate it?..if so...how do I get one..? Got some spare connectors?...or at least can you supply the wire connection info...? Help...reply to kibbster at yahoo.com thanks..

Larry, July 2011

Just fixed
Thanks to all of you
I did a combination of the above methods
but what mainly helped was manually turning the white
wheel like structures with ridges on the sides

Hadi, May 2011

Hi. I have had the exact same problem.
Now im not entirely sure how the problem got fixed as all i did was take out the cd player and leave it on my table for around 30 minutes whilst trying to find the tools in order to attempt one of the solutions posted on here. After unable to find the star screwdriver to try and remove the discs manually I thought id give the removal of the negative battery a try. When I plugged all the cables back into the CD player the discs began to read and the problem seems to be resolved.

P.S. i did not need to remove the negative cable from the battery

Kaya Hassan, March 2011

Had error message 3, and removed them manually, but I discovered that the left hand lift mechanism had a couple of chunks out of it and did not move freely. I think that a previous owner could have caused the damage doing the same as I was.
Could not get the cds to load past slot one, so I now have a single cd player!
Better than heart radio at least!!!

Ghia X mondeo Estate, July 2010

I tried the 'gently removing the top CD' and was feeling pretty pleased with myself.. but then the laser reader appeared on top of the rest of the CDs. So it seems they have all fallen out of their trays and now the laser arm won't go home and i have no way now of getting the rest of them out!!! Help??

Jules, July 2010

Just tried the eject and whack the dashboard theory and just set of my passager airbag off. arrrrrrrrrrrrgh

should have taken my mates adivce and swapped it at the scarp yard,

and to make matters worse the CD is still stuck in there

Stu, July 2010

Can't thank you all enough. Suffered from Error code 3 on my 6006e unit. Prior to reading your comments I had bought a torx T8 drive from Tamworth Toolbox to take the top off and managed to get the top three CD's out but couldn't get the bottom three out. Having read the comments I tried pressing LOAD and EJECT at the same time and it seemed to try to reset things. Disconnected the unit. When I reconnected it I heard lots of whiring sounds as it recognised the remaining CD's one by one. Pressed eject and managed to remove all of them.

Rich Thomas, May 2010

whoever said brute force is not the answer was obviously not a ford owner, i hit the dash on the passenger side after selecting eject all and the cd's started rolling out!! many thanks

steve b, May 2010

I just had a problem with a stuck disc!!

I've read all of the above and faffed about for ages but managed to get the disc out by doing the following;

1) switch on the stereo
2) press "load disc button"
3) wait for the unit to start wirring
4) whack the dashboard quite hard on the bottom left corner of the stereo (right where a passengers (United Kingdom right hand drive) right knee would be.
5) press "eject disc"

hey presto - disc popped out. Not a usual fix but it worked for me :) :)

Woo - Hoo - I fixed it, March 2010

I had the same problem - focus 03 - and after reading this and recovering from the prices, I removed the unit, removed the top and forced - quite gently - the cds out, had to operate a small switch - left front on top - to open the removal slot. I removed all the non standard cds and left 2 pre-recorded shop bought ones in and it now works perfectly well. Strange to have a mass produced unit built to such high tolerances! I wasn't brutal, but quite firm and it seems OK. Thanks to all it was your input that encouraged me

Patrick Lee, March 2010

i have just had the bad luck of this error e3 code an only the radio would work.. after reading on here i decided i would make or break mine ..what i did was pull out the unit an undone the 2 screws holding the top cover on an removed top cover an i found 1 cd was pushed forward an up at a angle so i pushed it back then switched unit on an hey presto it all works fine again ......

roy, February 2010

My 6006 decided to stop playing cd's last week. It displayed some sort of 'error' and got stuck in radiomode.

I remembered that I had a problem before and that there was a combination of keys to be pushed wich helped me te last time.

Some experimenting solved the problem, I did the following:

Turn the radio off. Then push: eject, load and power at the same time and hold them for a couple of seconds. Then the radio goes into a mode, checking for discs. When it is done the problem has dissapeared.

Christiaan

Christiaan, December 2009

imam kod za ovaj auto kasetofon neznam kako da ga ukucam pomoc

nermin, November 2009

My 9 year old son and I have just resolved this problem. We took the top cover off the stereo and then unscrewed 2 tiny screws to enable easier access to the cds. The ones at the top were easy to remove. We then pressed eject and the others moved up to the top and we took each one out.
We then unplugged the system and replugged it in, adding the code. The stereo would then insert a disc but struggled to click into place, so we helped by pushing each cd onto the white rotating head.

Once all 6 cds were loaded, the stereo worked fine.

P.S. My son Dan says "if the radio doesn't work, try checking that the aerial is attatched to the stereo!"

Goodluck,

Sue & Dan.

Sue & Dan, October 2009

btw can anyone help me where i can find a guid to fix this jammed cd thing? please help ASAP.

Ziggy, July 2009

hi there ervery 1 ive gt a ford st170 52plate the cd are stuck and wont play, when i try to load its says error no disc (there are disc's in there), there are 6 cd's in there they get jammed, plus the radio works fine, when i load the cd or eject it, it wont let me? plus ive opended it up the cd rack goes abit up and dosnt seem to load the disc? any ideas im getting sick of listening to the radio.

Ziggy, July 2009

Use the website http://www.mapleaudio.co.uk/
They are based in Bath. You can buy the 6006 stereo release pins from them. You can then send them the stereo by post. They will fix and send back. It costs around £100. On the site they list the Ford 6006 and all the common faults with it such as the 3CD error message.

Keith B, March 2009

To enter the keycode:

If you switch on the audio unit and CODE---- flashes in the display, you must enter a keycode.

1. Press button 1 repeatedly until the correct first digit of keycode is shown in the display.
2. Then press preset button 2, 3 and 4 in the same way for remaining digits, until complete correct keycode is shown.
3. Press preset button 5 to enter the keycode.
Unit shoul now be operational.

Peter, January 2009

I HAVE LOST MY BOOKLET SO NEED TO KNOW HOW TO PUT MY CODE IN I HAVE SO FAR PUT THE 4 DIGET CODE IN DO I NEED TO PREE ONE OF THE BUTTONS AND HOLD IN THANKS STEVE.

STEVE GOOCH, January 2009

REGARDS THIS COMMENT.

The 6006E requires the mechanism to be synchronised at both sides and a common fault is that the mechanism jams on one side slightly and it all goes out of alignment. It is quite hard to make sure it is properly aligned. You can tell if this is the problem by looking at the carriers to see if they are straight. If you look from the front of the radio with the top off, the motor at the back left controls the CD select mechanism, the one at the back right controls the CD move mechanism. You need to move the one on the right to see if the carrier that is selected moves up straight. Aligning is another headache...:-(


im looking for a motor. Because i think the motor has failed. is there a quick fix for this. thank you

Stuart Elliot, July 2008

I have just bought the removal rods from Halfords. £3.99. I had a CD Stuck as per the details in this thread and disconnecting the battery made it eject :-) Now I'll only play CD's and not CD-r's

Chris, April 2008

Can anyone please advise where to buy the DIN E release rods, did a search on ebay but didn't find anything. Have a jammed cd in slot 1. Have a 6006 RDS EON in an '02 Ford Fiesta. Sorry I know I've posted a question here but it's relevant only to this thread. Many thanks!

Vince, April 2008

hi !
i have done What Clive Hillan wrote but i can not manage to extract the last cd, it looks like the read lense is just in the middle, as a wrong place and i can not move it !
and what ever i do, it always says "error 3" when i try to insert a cd, and "no cd" when i try to eject the last one...
do you have an idea ? i can email a pic of my player if it helps ...
thanks for your help !!
Elisa

Elisa, April 2008

Has anyone had CD Error 4?

I've had this for some time with intermittent playing of the CD (ie sometimes it plays OK, other times it gives me an error code of 4 & refuses to play)

My CD has now been swallowed in location 1 but the player doesnt recognise it - it just asks me to insert a CD in slot 1 but of course there is already one in there so I can't play ANY CD's now.

Steve, March 2008

I have a 6006E player and had error code 3. I was out picking up some of the removal tools for the stereo and whilst on my way home I went over some cobbles on the road a bit too quick!! Anyway when I tried the CD player one last time before attempting a repair, it worked!! it ejected 2 discs which must have been jammed (although it said no discs were inside) it now loads and works fine! Must have been the vibration going over the cobles, saved me time trying to take apart and risk breaking it.

Kev, December 2007

A big thanks for this thread, my 6006e in my '02 mondeo was fixed using the ideas posted here, biggest problem/hold up was finding a T8 star bit for the 2 screws at the back of the unit but Halfords came through in the end, turned out there were 7 cds in a 6 cd changer! Also managed to get them all out in working order. Thankfully I can now cancel my booking at the local Ford garage and can now sell the car in 100% working order.

Legin Eillen, September 2007

Thanks for the contributions your guys made here. I have fixed my 6006 by following the instructions.

Again much appreciated for the help!

Jeff, July 2007

What a great thread ! I was nearly giving up when I stumbled across it.

First and foremost I have fixed my Ford CD Player 6006E RDS EON in a Ford Mondeo (Late 01)

Symptoms:

Display was showing NO DISCS followed by the CD error 3 message after persisting with combinations of the Eject and Load buttons.

The fix for my unit :

I purchased the DIN E release rods on E-bay for £1.49 inc P&P. (Cheaper than the fuel to drive to your local Ford dealer !)

The Haynes workshop manual for this Mondeo says disconnect the negative car battery terminal (if you do this of course, you must enter the 4 digit code to power up the 6006E after the fix, and additionally initialise the electric windows !!).

Then I withdrew the unit. I had a bit of difficulty using the release rods at first as the unit had never been moved in 5 years. Eventually got the knack locating them and applying a slight outward pressure to lock them into the side catches of the unit. I did not disconnect the leads at the back.

I unscrewed the 2 small tamper-proof 6-star screws at the back of the top cover using the correct screwdriver adapter and removed the cover.

When I looked inside there was 1 CD-R stuck in tray 4 (my son’s well scratched copy !). As a result I now have the same opinion as Ford’s official line (see earlier post).

I didn’t attempt to retrieve the disc from the unit. Instead I reconnected the negative battery lead, entered the 4 digit code and pressed the Load button. The unit showed "Insert CD" on the display. So I filled tray 1 with a junk Sunday newspaper CD (didn’t dare put in a favourite one) !! Repeated this with other CDs for trays 2 & 3. Then the unit recognised the CD-R in tray 4 automatically and start playing it OK. Just for completeness sake I filled trays 5 & 6 with more junk CDs. Finally I ejected all 6 CDs and everything was fixed, hurray ! Replaced the top cover and pushed the unit back into the housing. Finally I initialised the electric windows with car ignition on.

In hindsight, I probably could have got away without withdrawing the unit at all and just disconnecting/reconnecting the negative car battery. This is definitely worth a try first.

Hope this helps

Clive Hillam, June 2007

My unit 'lost' discs 2-5 (02 plated mondeo) one day. After spending an hour and a half with a coathanger and swearing alot I went and spent £2.49 on the proper DIN E release tools out it popped on first time!

I followed the advice listed here and popped the top off (T-8 driver I think). Nothing looked amiss and everything looked aligned. I manually removed the first 2 CDs and then plugged the unit back in, entered the code and it then found discs 3-6. Happy days so I thought.

Maybe not. Next problem was trying to eject the disc or load one it was jamming in the fascia slot. A little manual 'assistance' ejecting CD3 and everything was OK.

I think there is some release on the slot that was out of sync (prob caused by me trying to slot a CD in before it was ready).

Then loaded and unloaded CDs several times and everything was fine. It was quite relaxing watching the mechanisms swopping CDs.

If worse came to worse then there's always eBay for second-hand units if your unit is beyond repair - anythings cheaper then your friendly ford workshop!

Thanks for the advice - it helped me wonderfully

Martin, September 2006

Had the same problem but managed to fix it by taking the top off and manually removing the CDs. A tad tricky and I did damage one CD with a screwdriver but replacement is a lot cheaper than the £175 or £290 repair quoted! The problem CDs were the Daily Mail free linguaphone "learn French". Suggest you avoid putting these in the 6006E. I've never had a problem with any other CDs including CD Rs that play perfectly.

AndyCL1, July 2006

A Ford 6006E stereo will make loads of nasty noises when you power it up. It is perfectly normal and natural. It does not matter whether there are any discs in or not, it checks every location to see if there are any discs in. It will move the carriage to all 6 locations and move the laser out to grab a disc. If there is no disc, it will retract the laser, move the carriage to the next and try again. If it grabs a disc, it remembers there is a disc there and puts it back to check the next one. A WORD OF WARNING - THE REASON MOST OF THESE STEREO'S GO FAULTY (ACCORDING TO FORD) IS THAT BLANK COMPUTER CD'S ARE NOT MANUFACTURED TO THE TOLERANCES OF ORIGINALS. SOME CHEAPER CD-R DISCS ARE THICKER THAN THE LITTLE GRABBERS CAN COPE WITH SO THE CD-R POPS OFF WHEN THE DISC SPINS AT SPEED. ALSO, SOME CD-R DISCS ARE NOT BALANCED ENOUGH AND SLIGHT IMPERFECTIONS MAKE THEM WOBBLE AT SPEED, HENCE THEY AGAIN SLIP OFF (LIKE A CAR WHEEL WOBBLES IF NOT BALANCED).

Dave, April 2006

I have a similar problem. I inserted a CD-R in to my Ford 6006E this morning. It made some very unhealthy sounding noises and then returned to AM/FM. When I pressed the CD button it reported "NO DISCS" and when I pressed Eject it did likewise. When I pressed and held LOAD it whirred and clicked for a while and then invited me to insert a CD right on top of the one I'd already inserted in to tray 1.

Basically I can't make the unit "see" the CD in there. I contacted Ford who did the usual. "Oh, yeah, see that's complicated. We have a procedure we can do but if that don't work we'll 'ave to send it back guv'nor. Probably cost ya £290".

I think not! I've ordered DIN keys to withdraw the stereo from my dash and as it's out of warranty will attempt this one all by myself. THEN if it goes wrong I'll pay Ford to fix it. If they're going to make £290 out of me they might as well have a decent fault to fix!

Having read this thread I think I'll be able to pop the cover off and power it back up. If the unit doesn't "see" the CD automatically I'll carefully remove it and put it all back together.

Ford. Never again. Their prices are ridiculous!

Kris Didymus, December 2005

The 6006E requires the mechanism to be synchronised at both sides and a common fault is that the mechanism jams on one side slightly and it all goes out of alignment. It is quite hard to make sure it is properly aligned. You can tell if this is the problem by looking at the carriers to see if they are straight. If you look from the front of the radio with the top off, the motor at the back left controls the CD select mechanism, the one at the back right controls the CD move mechanism. You need to move the one on the right to see if the carrier that is selected moves up straight. Aligning is another headache...:-(

Dave, October 2005

If this is the error I think it is, you can fix it yourself, but the question is whether it stays fixed! Who knows what Ford does, but if it's more than about 10mins work, they probably just swap it out.

They way I fixed mine was to take it out and remove the top cover. Then plug it back in and power it up. You'll probably see that the central spindle isn't grabbing the CDs properly, and consequently they get knocked out of their trays and spin loosely between the tray and the CD above (makes a horrible noise with the top off!!). All that then seems to make the trays go out of sequence, 'confusing' the unit and hence you can't eject anything.
I had to manually remove the top CD (carefully!!) once the laser head was parked. Then I had to keep trying to move the other disks about my choosing the trays as and when I could (trial and error). You may need to manually stabilise the disk(s) at times (finger, small screwdriver, etc.) to avoid them getting chewed by the spindle.

By this point, when I did it, I had got all of the CDs out of trays 1-4, but 5 and 6 were still in. However, they were in securely. Problem was that the unit didn't know about trays 5 and 6, as I'd only just messed 1-4!! So, I loaded 1-4 up with blank PC CDs, and then when I tried to load 5 and 6, the unit realised they were there again, and played them.

I then ejected all the CDs, out of sequence to ensure the selector mechanism was OK, and reloaded in order. No problems after that, but I'm touching wood as I type it!

One word of warning, there's a tiny plastic roller just behind the CD slot. It can pop out quite easily, and it's a ******* to get back in!! As it's pretty small, it also likes to shoot off and wander around inside the unit......be careful! :)

Mark, September 2005

I had this problem and took it to a reputable car stereo shop but they said it was a ford only fix. I took it to the local Ford dealer and they sent it away. The bad news is it cost me £175 to get it fixed, but bearing in mind its a £500 stereo I reluctantly paid it.

Slingo (slingo_dbass@yahoo.co.uk), June 2005