I just bought my 98 civic and everything works great except the CD player - it will read my CDs but it takes an incredibly long time to do so once I put them in (up to a minute) and if I manually change tracks it'll take another 15 or 20 seconds. Any ideas on what the issue might be?

 

Do you notice that it takes longer for the songs to play if the CD is a recordable one. I have the same problem. However the CD's you buy work fine.

 

Exactly. Keep in mind that the radio was designed/manufactured long before CD-Rs were around. If you are experiencing this with store bought CDs, then try a CD lens cleaner disc. And if this doesn't help then the optical lens is out of adjustment.

 

^Strange though, considering the professionally produced CDs still had to be burnt to put the music on them...

 

Yes I've noticed it is with the CD-Rs. I've researched a little and it seems that I'd need an aftermarket CD player to play the CD-Rs. The radio is connected to the remote entry system, so if I want to keep the remote entry system I'll have to keep the radio hooked up and hide it behind the dash when I put in an aftermarket CD player.

 

My guess would be that different CD's might work. Maybe more expensive ones?

 

No professionally mass-produced CDs are 'pressed' not burned.

X2
I have found that using the CD-Rs that are DARK BLUE on the bottom (not the really light color that MOST are) work well with players built before 2000.

 

Oh okay. How's that work?

 

just get a after market player the cheapest one at walmart is better then what you have now get a sony.or go big if you have the funding dvd,gps,ect.