Factory Radio Reads “MTL”, Won’t Play Audio

[Silverhawk1991]

Hey all, I pulled my radio today, and after replacing it, it just displays “MTL” and won’t switch to radio. I don’t have a cassette in it, and I don’t think cassettes have ever worked in this unit (I tried a cassette->3.5mm aux cable once and it wouldn’t stay down). 
 

Any ideas what would cause this? I have the dash pulled off, so would like to get it addressed tonight.

@Minuit, any ideas?

[fiatslug87]

It thinks there’s a “metal” cassette tape in there (a higher end tape than normal). Have you tried to eject? You need to get the mechanism to pop up.

[Silverhawk1991]

Ah, that’s what is meant by MTL. I did try the eject button, but nothing happens. I pulled the radio out just to check if something was lodged in there or something was off. 
 

Is there a physical eject mechanism that I could manually actuate?

[TurboedMJ]

Try putting in a cassette and running it, and press eject afterwards.

[Silverhawk1991]

Unfortunately I have no cassettes on hand, but fortunately I fixed the issue! Not exactly sure what did it. 
 

I pulled the head unit and actuated all the mechanical bits inside, to try and shake anything loose that may have been stuck. That seems to have done it. 
 

Thanks all!

[Minuit]

If it does it again, unplug the tape mechanism.