Toyota original Japanese CD/tape/tuner head

[quattrocchi]

Just bought a 2nd hand Corolla Spacio 97 at 92,000km and the audio head unit is the orig Toyota (CO601 175mmx100mm. It seems fine enough to our ears, so before we get the 12khz band-expander fitted is there any advice you out there could advise us when evaluating this head? My wife mentioned that one day the CD jumped when she went over a bump ... is this the sort of thing we might have to put up with is we retain this old unit? What's a reasonable cheap unit that'd fit the 175x100 space?

[Dell'Orto]

Not sure what you mean about evaluating it, most factory headunits are pretty reasonably made, particularly the newer ones.
The factory headunit in my MR2 was terrible for skipping, closing the door was enough to make it skip.
As long as its the standard single DIN size (which it sounds like) any aftermarket headunit will do the job.

[quattrocchi]

So some skipping is to be expected ... liable to happen in a new unit as in a 1997 car? OK.

"As long as its the standard single DIN size (which it sounds like) any aftermarket headunit will do the job."
the 175x100 we have here is more of a boxy shape than the usual 175 x (about) 60mm. Is that still standard?

[Dell'Orto]

Well, given that its now nearly a decade old, I guess you'd have to expect some degree of skipping
Ah yes, sorry, that size would probably be a double DIN...you can get single DIN sized pockets to go with an aftermarket headunit to make it all tidy.

[quattrocchi]

The factory double-DIN unit shows an annoying trait: this rustle accompanying sound impulses (ie, no rustle during the mini-pauses between vocal passages etc) when playing home-made CDs. Store-bought CD pays fine. Reminds me of our DVD player in our lounge: fine for DVDs, CDs, but not for home-burnt CDs. Bin it? Or mayne I'll try burning CDs at a differnt speed.

[DeeCee]

depending on how serious you are about your music in the car.. i wouldn't invest much into the factory CD player unless its an absolute necessity to retain the factory look.

Factory headunits that old will generally slip and move out of alignment over the years.. not much you can so unless you want to remove the headunit and isolate it from the metal behind the dash.
As to the rustling.. are you sure its the CD player or is it the speakers??

[quattrocchi]

[quote="DeeCee"]As to the rustling.. are you sure its the CD player or is it the speakers??[/quote]
Yes. Pre-recorded CDs play well, on all four spkrs.

[suckymotor]

$10 for the band expander at the warehouse or if you are after a new unit try parallel ipmports http://www.parallelimported.co.nz