Cassette stuck in Radio

[E34 5er]

Hi all,

Before I start- yes, I searched about this topic and read through several threads, but was not happy with the replies, which were pretty much "Throw your old head unit out and put in a new, aftermarket one."

So what happened was last week (like a dumbass) I decided to put in one of those tape-to-auxillary cable adapters into my perfectly working, E32 radio. It didn't work. So I pressed eject to get it out, and it would not budge. So I (carefully) yanked it out with the cable and it finally came out. However, my radio was stuck in "cassette" mode and wouldn't play any radios or CDs! What kind of design feature is that?! So then I thought, well, maybe because my adapter wasn't ejected right, it still thinks it has a cassette in. I'll decide to put in a real cassette and see it it'll work. Well, the good news is that the radio itself still works, but again, it will not eject! And without the additional cable, it won't come out, and I can't find any pair of pliers thin enough to help force it out.

I don't want to cause any damage to my radio, so what's the best way to remove the current cassette and get the this issue fixed? Or am I forever doomed to listen to the sweet blues-rock guitar playing of Eric Clapton?

[SergeBMW]

When this happened to me I was happy with my Pink Floyd cassette that got stuck in there, but im sure if it stayed, id grow into hating Pink Floyd...
It eventually came out for me.

Try rewinding it and ejecting, do that a few times it should pop out. If not you will have to get in and disassemble it. You may be able to separate the carrier and pop the tape out. If you say you were able to remove the other tape adapter by pulling on the wire then it should be easy for you to push the tape out once you have it opened up.

[E34 5er]

Ok,

Good News: I was able to get the tape out using a thin envelope opener to lift the deck, then used thin pliers to carefully extract the cassette.

Bad News: The radio still thinks a cassette is inserted. I tried using an electronic duster, thinking maybe something was stuck on the motor or something, but no luck. I guess the only thing to do now is take out the unit and disassemble it? What a pain, I guess I need to remove the rear seat as well to disconnect the battery as well... What a headache one small mistake can make!

[E34 5er]

Hmm, so read up on this a bit more, it seems that the radio uses a special 5-sided hex tool in order to unscrew the screws under the two tabs. People have said using a phillips or allen wrench would work fine, but it seems to strip those screws, pretty much rendering this radio unit useless for re-installation. I do not intend on replacing my radio, I keep all my cars stock and would never install an aftermarket head unit to ruin the look of my interior.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? This was the only one of my cars with a working radio, now I'm stuck listening to nothing on my drives.

[SergeBMW]

I think most are just a small torx screw. Mine came off using a small bit set screwdriver. Easiest radio to remove.

[Sansouci]

Harbor Freight has security bits in a small set that should only cost a few bucks. Maybe they have what you need.

[E34 5er]

So it seems the screw is a Torx T8, thanks for the advice on Harbor Freight, but looks like they only sell the sockets as a set, I'll probably swing by a local store and pick it up there. This really does seem to be an easy radio to take out once you have the proper tool.

[CroughtonE32]

So before you take out the radio and go through all this, you might want to spend a few bucks on what we used to use back in the day a cassette head cleaner. Looks like a tape but cleans the head in about 30 seconds. You might take a chance, putting one in and letting it run for a minute and hope it pops out. It might reset everything for you. Radio may came back on. Something like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TDK-Head-C...-/292025905342

[E34 5er]

Yes, that idea actually came to my head today, I know we have one, but I need to spend the day going through the storage to find it. Or, I may as well just spend a few bucks on a replacement one as you suggested.

[CroughtonE32]

Sometimes they come with a small bottle of cleaning fluid. If I remember a couple of drops on the tape, you put it in the player and sometimes magic can happen. I have so many tapes. Some time I miss the original radio. I remember going from 8 track to cassette, to CD and now my kid (32) wants me to trade in my 16 gig IPhone for a 64 gig so there would be room for her to put all my music. Then some sort of an attachment wire and you've got everything in your damn pocket. I think I'll stick to my single CD changer. It will out live me. NO MORE CHANGES

[E34 5er]

^ So I got the cassette head cleaner online with the cleaning fluid, went through the whole process as per the directions, but no cigar. I thought at first the unit may actually be working, as it was making different sounds compared to before. But it still wouldn't eject. I'm just going to give up on this for now, I have 4 cars and now not one of them have a working radio. I think this is a sign from G-d that I shouldn't be listening to music while driving or something, anyways, I have too many headaches in my life right now to start rebuilding this head unit. I'll simply continue to drive in silence.