Why is my head unit skipping?
 

I have the Pioneer head unit that fits directly in the factory slot. I can't remember which style but anyways latelyI can't even listen to a cd without it skipping a little. Recently it has gotten worse. I check the cd's sometimes cleaning them and then play them and they will skip more. Other times I will listen to a cd strait through maybe twice and the second time the cd will skip where it didn't the first time. This afternoon I played a freshly burned cd all of the way through without a problem. I get out get back in later, start it up and the same damn cd skips. I haven't even taken it out of the player. I tried one of those lens cleaning kits that plays the cd and cleans but I had no results. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks in advance.

Before I even opened this thread I thought to myself, "I wonder if it's a Pioneer." I've said it before, I'll say it again....Pioneer is junk. If your HU is like other Pioneer HU's I've dealt with in the past you probably have a problem with the clamping mechanism inside. On 2 different HU's and one changer, all Pioneer, the clamp inside was out of spec and wouldn't hold the CD tight enough. This caused the CD to have runout while spinning and made it very hard, if not impossible, for the laser to track the disc. Unless someone else can think of another cause for your problem you'll probably have to send it in for service. Good luck with that....in my experience, Pioneer hasn't had the best track record as far as their customer service goes.

Thanks for the reply. That seems very likely. When it was new it wasn't a problem but after I hit a few train tracks pretty hard I noticed it acted a little different and the problem got worse as time went on. Thanks again.

Yea Pioneer HUs are very reliable, I'd invest in something better ;)