E65 CD Changer Eject Fix - DIY

[Hugo_za]

Like most E65 owners I had the problem where the CD changer would not eject. The drive itself worked fine, and the manual release worked too, but the eject button just did not want to eject the cartridge. The door would open, but nothing would happen. BMW's remedy for this is to replace the whole CD changer, but today I discovered the the problem might not be the changer at all. The first image shows the CD changer removed from the dash. In the circle is a little gear which is connected to the door. This gear moves up and down as the door opens and closes. When I took my changer out today the eject worked perfectly fine, but as soon as I reinstalled it, the eject was not working.

The problem: The wood trim! The trim sags down over time...just 1 or 2 mm, but it's enough to be in the way of that little gear. When the gear does not move all the way to its end position the CD changer does not see the door as open, and as such doesn't eject the cartridge. My solution was to push the wood trim upwards gently while fastening the bolt behind the passenger side air vent. This prevented the trim from interfering with the door mechanism, and now my changer ejects perfectly each and every time

Hope this helps any other folks out there who have their CD changers stuck. There are plenty of DIYs on how to remove the wood trim. Google is your friend

PS. My iphone was dead and as such I didn't take any photos. I used generic photos for illustration purposes.

 

[sash]

nice DIY :clapper:

 

[Maljan]

Replacing the CD changer when it is in fact being jammed by the wood trim. Sounds like a typical dealership response to me.
:thumbdo:

 

[Hugo_za]

Look Im not saying that the actual changers don't fail, but they "fail" way too often the E65.

 

[Hugo_za]

Update on this:

So the eject function was intermittent at best. I also noticed that the silver trim was not lined up with the leather section of the dash. As it turns out you need to angle the CD-Changer upwards slightly when installing it else it catches on the back section of the leather and causes the panels to be under strain. It sits perfectly flush now, and the eject function works 100%, all the time