what does error e12 mean on a ford 6000 cd player??

The basic error code is that the laser cannot read the CD.
It is mainly caused when the car battery or power is disconnected while a CD is still in the cd player. It can also be caused by sluggish movement of the laser head travel slide due to hardening of the original grease on the worm drive, or misalignment of the laser. Although this can be rectified by a competent person, the error code is locked into the memory and has to electronically reset. This however is a function or secret which is privy to the manufacturers and repair agents for obvious reasons, and nobody has put it on the web. The reset can sometimes be obtained by fooling the memory by disconnecting and reconnecting the power to the CD unit with a CD inserted after ensuring that the laser travel guide has been moved away from the stop position. This is not always successfull in which case it requires a trip to the nearest repair agent.

Mine is a 200 mile round trip and I have not gone there yet.

Note - if attemting work on these units be aware that the unit will not work when the lid is removed. The cd acceptance slide is controlled by light diode sensors which are interupted when the cd is inserted. They will not allow the cd to be recognised if the unit is not sealed to external light

Captain Kirk
May 2010

It means that you should remove the disk and clean it.

(from http://www.motor-talk.de/forum/radio-6000-cd-fehlermeldung-e12-t805595.html)

dan
August 2007