Are old OEM radios worth anything?

[Sqrly]

I replaced my 04 OEM 6 CD changer with something newer because I wanted BT and a backup cam.

The OEM works fine. Some of the buttons are worn and once in awhile it does kick out a cd, which I just put back in and it plays fine. A thorough internal cleaning would probably cure that. I've only used a lens cleaning cd on it.

Are they worth trying to sell?

I get the impression they are bound to the vehicle they come in and you need a spendy tool to recode them?

Can I hook it to a 12V source and play music with it in my garage or will it refuse to work because it's no longer hooked to the vehicle it came in? (I don't really need that, I have a laptop out there with a 2.1 speaker system I use for music and manuals.)

 

[Mooseman]

Some people look for them, but like you, look for something with BT for calls and music. And the problem with them is that they have to be programmed with the truck's VIN to work. Cheaper to just get an aftermarket radio.

 

[Sqrly]

Salvage it is then. I'll rip it apart for any components I think may be useful in other projects.

 

[Sqrly]

Some people look for them, but like you, look for something with BT for calls and music. And the problem with them is that they have to be programmed with the truck's VIN to work. Cheaper to just get an aftermarket radio.

Hold up here...

You can easily unlock them by removing the eeprom. You can actually get it off with just a pair of pliers and a lot of gentle wiggling. There's a ton of videos on it. After doing so the stereo will work fine EXCEPT it won't save presets and it will show an "cal err" message for 3 seconds everytime you turn it on.

I took mine apart, mechanically, and it's actually a very well built unit. It's no wonder it's still working after 20 years.

I blew the dust out of the cd changer and put it back together. I'm going to keep it for a backup.