My 2006 Pontiac Torrent CD Player crapped out but the radio still works fine.

I was able to remove the CD unit from the radio and discovered the drive gears for the CD loader are bad.
Can I just get a replacement CD player unit for this radio?
These radio sets are very expensive and there is nothing to these things pretty much a hollow steel box with a control board, cd player unit and face plate/control panel.

Please if you dont know, PLEASE dont comment........thank you.

 

well, now that you so nicely asked not to comment...

$120 will buy you a Panasonic that is superb to whatever is that you have in your car. In all and any respects. $30 will buy you an install kit for it. It's about 30 minutes labor to put new unit in. You'll be able to listen to CDs, MP3s, USB drive with huge memory or anything that fits via USB. Oh, and many places will install for free, if you buy their headunit, like Best Buy or Fry's.

How about that for comment? Or you can spend more $$ chasing replacement CD player, and then radio will crap out on you.

 

Uk is maybe a little less tactful than I would have been, but I have to agree.

I don't know either, but at the risk of your getting PO'd, I'm going to opine that I seriously doubt you can buy the component parts. If you're intent on staying factory have you considered junkyards (aka auto recyclers)?

 

The radio you descibe I believe has a aux button. This will alow you to install a 6 CD changer. Just need the correct harness.

Crutchfield is the best place to look.

Also I agree with ukrbyk. My GM Pontiac GP radio was crap and I did the cd changer route with a reman unit. Changing the stereo to aftermarket would be the best bet.

There is a site for GM radios that repairs them. Dont have it off hand. You can also buy reman ones but they are pricey. My pontiac radio was some $300 plus. The only reason I was forced to buy the same radio is because the pontiac GP had all red dash backlighting. I did not what a green lit radio, or a red that did not match.

Thats my story....

Found the site. I think there are others like it. Send in yours and they will send you a new one. But at least you will get something for yours.

OEM FACTORY RADIOS REPAIR

Mike NJ

 

I'm just going to install a (new) old Pioneer from 2005 which I bought for my wife's car but she didn't want it so I'll finally stick it in mine.

After several hours of online research regarding the CD unit I found absolutely nothing so yeah, it looks like aftermarket is the best choice here.

Just have to customize a faceplate to fill the H U G E space that GM uses for the radio cutout in the dash.

 

Crutchfields has all the plates and stuff you need.

Car Selector

Mike NJ

 

lawrosa,

thanks for the Crutchfields help!

I've been trying to find an outfit for that.

 

And you saw the GM link correct? They say repair CD for $125-$165.

Factory Gm Radios

Mike NJ

 

Also...check ProFit (I think thats the name)....most of these places will have a cubby for the extra space...better than just a big blanking plate.

 

DO NOT BUY AT CRUTCHFIELD!!!!!!!!! i will not have enough exclamation marks to underscore this. It is super expensive and you can get same items for fraction of their cost places else. What you may want to do, is to look at their catalog, find the right part, then Google that part for better price. I have sub in my Camry that they still sell for close to $400 and I bought same, new in the box, for $120.
install kit that I mentioned has all possible configurations for half DIN/ one DIN stereos, sorry, head units, for your car. It's a bunch of plastic pieces that you mostly discard, as far as you find one that fits your needs.
And I, also, have to apologize. Pioneer is the brand, not Panasonic. I would not be installing old Pioneer head units though. Say, Frys here has new ones, with a ton of features, for around $120. Just think about this. I-phone connection - yes; I-pod - yes, external hard drive - yes, USB flash drive - yes, headphones - yes, remote - yes, 50W per channel output - yes, play any format CD - yes. And I probably missed a few.
So, say, you download Total Recorder, which is free. Go on internet and listen to your favorite music, say, on Pandora, or LastFM, or Winamp's Shoutcast radio. Record a ton of free music in CD quality. Chop recording and hand pick what you like. Put it on a say 18GB flash drive. Stick it into your Pioneer and enjoy. I have 10 gigs of free music on mine. You realize it's over 3000 songs, all free, and how many CDs THAT would have been?

 

thanks man but this Pioneer is already bought and paid for.

I saw the kit I need at advans auto for 16 bucks by Metra and has the pocket under the radio to fill that H U G E void of air GM thinks they have to put there.

I'm old school.......most of the time just I listen to am talk radio anyway but I do miss the CD player.
I'm a guitar player and love listening to my classic rock guitar riffs from time to time and when I lose my signal during my drive through the pines to the jersey shore.

 

Here's the straight pupe on this radio........
All GM vehicles produced from 2001 and a half and up have the On Star, Air Bags and Dome Light an more...... wired through the radio ( way to go GM boys you greedy sob's I hope you go the way of Packard and Desoto) so I now have to either pay an obscene amount of money to get a crummy oem radio repaired or waste more of my hard earned money on a $150.00+ special connector that will allow my safety and On Star and other systems to function if I go with an aftermarket radio.
I could also do an underdash install of a new radio while leaving the oem radio in place but that will look hokey.
I know one thing for certain.......I WON'T be spending any of my money for any GM solution.

 

Ahhhh we all completely forgot about that. You'd be surprised (or maybe not), but almost every newer vehicle uses the radio for a lot more than playing music.

Ford has Sync(?) in all but their lowest priced cars, haven't shopped in a while but I bet they all have something similar.

 

After carefully reviewing all of my options I found a used oem Radio/CD set on ebay for a fraction of the cost of any of the other solutions.

Thanks for all of your input.

 

Mackey, I have a question for my information in case the same situation happens to my vehicle. Will the ebay replacement radio require security code changes on the BCM through a scanner, or will the radio require reprogramming to include your vehicle VIN #?

 

Good question!!!

After the arrival of my $35.00 ebay used radio I got the "Locked" message in the radio display when I hooked it up.
So......I looked on the internet and found the Unlock procedure for GM radios but not mine. The NEWER radio sets need a Tech II device to reprogram YOUR VIN number into the radio. "That didnt stop me".........I simply swapped out the CD drive from the NEW radio along with my CD control board since they had different boards for the CD (the new one was MP3 equipped) and re-installed my original radio and it works like new!

 

Thanks for the followup Mackey. That sounds like a great low cost DIY solution to me. I actually like my factory radio/cd player with the subwoofer and will do the same procedure if it happens to me.