Car CD doesn't play.

Very likely but not certain.

Do you smoke ? If you do you may well find that you can open the player up and clean the lens with some isopropyl alcohol or just metho if you don't have that and get the muck that smokers produce off the lens. A brush wont do that.

Really depends on whether you are a smoker or not.

Yes. CD players are better than cassettes but they are still mechanical. I've disassembled one after a cleaning disc didn't work and found the problem was in the mechanism that positions the laser head.

I think the current car does have a CD player but I use MP3s from a USB stick or Bluetooth from the phone for variety. Non-moving parts don't skip on rough roads.

When you put the CD in, the CD spins, the laser sled goes looking for a ref lective surface and then tries to focus on it. During this time, the spinn ing CD is brushing up against the lens even if the unit is not in "play".

Waste of time. Dirty CDs don't work one day and not the next, unless there was a substantial influx of dust and dirt blown into the mechanism. Auto CDs in particular are fairly well protected against this. If your CD stopp ed playing suddenly, something happened to it. First guess is a slipping l oading or sled belt.

I don't work on CDs any more, but when I did, dirty lens usually resulted i n a complaint of erratic skipping or muting, and even then, it pointed more to a weak laser than a dirty lens. Cleaning the lens used to buy some tim e at best.

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 22:14:54 -0400, micky posted for all of us to digest...

You have several choices: don't get it fixed and live with it. Send it to a car radio repair shop and pay big bux. Get one from a junkyard and swap it. Do as other posters have suggested and use memory stick or like. Get a portable CD player and plug it in.

For an automtive CD player, yes. It's dead, move on. If you can get the thing out of the dashboard and take it apart, you might have a chance, but if it just died a sudden death, it's probably not work fussing with.

eflective surface and then tries to focus on it. During this time, the spin ning CD is brushing up against the lens even if the unit is not in "play".

e was a substantial influx of dust and dirt blown into the mechanism. Auto CDs in particular are fairly well protected against this. If your CD stoppe d playing suddenly, something happened to it. First guess is a slipping loa ding or sled belt.

in a complaint of erratic skipping or muting, and even then, it pointed mo re to a weak laser than a dirty lens. Cleaning the lens used to buy some ti me at best.

I agree to a point. If there is sufficient smoke in the area, the lens can get a film on it that a brush won't remove. Here a clean using alcohol and a cotton swab works wonders. Note that this requires removal from the car and opening up the unit. I fixed 100s of CD players this way, mostly form smoking households.