Mysterious Ejecting Cassette Adapters revisited (Chevy Malibu)

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Rice Cooka

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So, after getting burned with the iTrip (a familiar story to many I'm sure) and looking at the prices of these newfangled tricked out iPod car stereos, I decided to stick with the low-tech alternative and just use a good old cassette adapter on my girlfriend's Chevy Malibu. I went to Radio Shack and bought their cheap solution, 100% convinced it would work perfectly in the car (I had never had a problem with cassette adapters before).

Well... as you can probably guess, after several frustrating minutes of trying to fix the "cassette reverses sides a couple of times and then ejects" problem I gave up. A cursory glance at the forum history tells me that I'm not the only one with this problem. Apparently there are SOME adapters that are more compatible with these auto-reverse decks. My question is, has a concensus been reached as to which is the best, most compatible cassette adapter out there? Anybody have experience with a factory installed tape deck on a chevy malibu that could recommend a brand?

Right now I'm looking at the monster iCarPlay (the upcoming smart cassette from Griffin looks interesting but I have a road trip THIS weekend), has anybody had the "eject of death" problem with it??

Just looking for suggestions.....
 

ru'

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Apparently the deck sees too much tension in the pinch roller wheel of the cassette adaptor. It therefore decides the tape has finished on that side (when the tape finishes, it pushes against the wheel).

So, the deck then plays the other side. The tension in the pinch wheel is still there, so the deck assumes the tape is faulty and ejects it.

Solution would appear to be bend the pinch wheel spring so it isn't so strong (or even remove it altogether).

I've never tried this, as I read the solution long after I'd returned every single adaptor I tried. Now I have an Alpine and iPod interface...

The adaptors are pretty cheap, so probably worth a go!
 

Rice Cooka

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Interesting.... of course this begs the question: why is the spring there in the first place?
 

ru'

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The pinch roller moves the tape along (normally) - I guess it needs a sprung wheel to press against otherwise it thinks the tape has broken?

Too much tension it'll think it's jammed, too little andit may think it's broken.
 

Rice Cooka

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Cool. Sooo, anybody have any thoughts on the... erm.... "loosest" cassette adapter?
 

Bino

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All you need to do is open up your tape adapter using a screw driver and lube up all of the cogs with WD40. This stopped my problem instantly.

I think the problem results from too much tension within the tape adapter, which causes your tape deck to THINK that the tape is done.
 

Sparky_92

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ru' said:
Apparently the deck sees too much tension in the pinch roller wheel of the cassette adaptor. It therefore decides the tape has finished on that side (when the tape finishes, it pushes against the wheel).

So, the deck then plays the other side. The tension in the pinch wheel is still there, so the deck assumes the tape is faulty and ejects it.

Solution would appear to be bend the pinch wheel spring so it isn't so strong (or even remove it altogether).
What part of the cassette is the pinch roller wheel? I'm suffering from this same problem with my auto-reversing Lexis tape player.
 

ru'

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In the centre of the tape adaptor is the head itself (metal shiny thing!), and on one side or other of this will be a little wheel (probably black) which can be pushed in slightly on a spring - this wheel and spring is the one which could be giving you problems.
 

Piquet

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ru' said:
The pinch roller moves the tape along (normally) - I guess it needs a sprung wheel to press against otherwise it thinks the tape has broken?

Too much tension it'll think it's jammed, too little andit may think it's broken.
I recently had this problem - the tape deck would try to play the 'other' side of the adaptor, and eventually spit the tape adaptor out. No doubt thinking that the tape had jammed.

My solution, after reading the various posts here recommending WD40 lubricant (which I don't have readily to had and couldn't be bothered buying) was to simply open the cassette adaptor and remove the spring wheel - piece that runs with the pinch roller. (for those wondering, this is the little rubber roller in the cassette off to one side of the 'head' - the silver thingy).

Having removed the spring wheel, my cassette adaptor works flawlessly - and quietly!! I don't understand why it is even there in the first place. I guess when they were designing the adaptors the took an existing cassette tape, removed the tape and added some electronics to transfer the audio. clearly, no thought was given to the purpose of the other bits in there.

so the moral of the story - forget lube, just chuck the spring roller bits. All you need is the silver 'head' and the two cogs in the centre of the cassette.
 

Ritalin

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I tried

I had the same problem and tried everything suggested here. WD40 removing that one piece. Everything. Nothing worked. I tried on many car radios too. Anyone know if there is a casette adapter that will work, out of the box, without this problem?
 

javelina

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In the Malibu (2001) owner's manual it explains how to override the tape sensor:

"With the radio off and the ignition on press and hold the TAPE AUX button to disable the tape sensing feature to enable play of some tape head cleaners and portable CD adapters. The radio will display READY and flash the cassette icon. The tight/loose tape sensing feature will then be disabled until the next time a cassette is ejected."
 

Close thirteen

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I have a Dynex MP3 cassette adapter and it repeatedly tries switching sides and ejecting. My first solution was to beat it against my dashboard. This did nothing but slightly ease my frustration.

I tried removing every gear, leaving just the silver reader head. This didn't work.

I then replaced just the spindle gears and the large, central gear. This also didn't work.

Finally, I replaced every gear but removed the rubber washer/disk from the gear closest to the reader head. I have not tested its long-term effectiveness but my cassette adapter (in my 2002 Chevy S10 Blazer) accepts the cassette, unlike my first two attempts where it would not.

The following is a diagram of the inside of my cassette adapter. I hope this helps.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z176/tackycougar/DynexMP3CassetteAdapter.jpg
 

wisemank3

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Solution

For the malibu, what worked for me was following the directions about taking out the rubber washer inside the tape adapter (very easy, the diagram picture from the link in the last post helped a lot). I also have to set the radio as per the malibu instructions...anytime i put the tape in. The directions are also posted above, copied and pasted here :

"With the radio off and the ignition on press and hold the TAPE AUX button to disable the tape sensing feature to enable play of some tape head cleaners and portable CD adapters. The radio will display READY and flash the cassette icon. The tight/loose tape sensing feature will then be disabled until the next time a cassette is ejected."

So it was a two-step solution for me. Veryyyy happy. :)
 

Harryfrei4443

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Hey everyone. I'm having a similar problem. I just bought a 2003 Chevy s10 crew cab. Like the user who started this thread, I am a firm believer in the cassette adapter. When I popped it in for the first time, sound would only pump out of the left side of the truck. So i popped the adapter out and fiddled around with it hoping that would solve my predicament as it had in the past. But when I was going to pop it back in I noticed that the cassette deck was still registering that there was a tape still present. Still no avail about an hour after playing around with the different functions listed in the manual. I hope to find an answer through somebody here before I have to go through the dealership to figure things out. Like I said, I just got the truck this morning and everything is perfect EXCEPT for this little hiccup.
 

iamse7en

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In the Malibu (2001) owner's manual it explains how to override the tape sensor:

"With the radio off and the ignition on press and hold the TAPE AUX button to disable the tape sensing feature to enable play of some tape head cleaners and portable CD adapters. The radio will display READY and flash the cassette icon. The tight/loose tape sensing feature will then be disabled until the next time a cassette is ejected."
I have a suburban and this worked perfectly!! Thank you!!
 

partyd

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Hey everyone. I'm having a similar problem. I just bought a 2003 Chevy s10 crew cab. Like the user who started this thread, I am a firm believer in the cassette adapter. When I popped it in for the first time, sound would only pump out of the left side of the truck. So i popped the adapter out and fiddled around with it hoping that would solve my predicament as it had in the past. But when I was going to pop it back in I noticed that the cassette deck was still registering that there was a tape still present. Still no avail about an hour after playing around with the different functions listed in the manual. I hope to find an answer through somebody here before I have to go through the dealership to figure things out. Like I said, I just got the truck this morning and everything is perfect EXCEPT for this little hiccup.
If the tape is not working, before you go to the dealer there is one more option

you can install and auxiliary input port to your factory, this plugs into the factory XM connector on the back of your Chevy radio

Chevrolet aux interface

your radio needs to have a BAND button
 
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