1995 850 Cassette Player

Install a CD player?

Seriously, though, the tape switches when the deck thinks the end of the tape has been reached. There are a variety of ways this could be detected, but my guess is that the drive belt(s) are worn to the point where the tape does not move, or move fast enough, and the deck thinks you're at EOT and switches direction. The belts are easy to change and probably fairly inexpensive if available, but you will have to remove the unit and take it apart to reach them.

If replacement belts are not available (which would not surprise me 23+ years later for a technology that has largely fallen out of use), it is very likely but by no means certain that O-rings would make reasonable replacements. It might take some searching to find someone who carries the diameter and sizes you need but keep looking--O-rings are available in a wide variety. The lifetime of O-rings used as belts is probably not close to the lifetime of the original belts, but I would expect them to last a while, at least, and you could try different materials because O-rings are made from several different materials including BUNA-N, silicon, and Viton. I'd try them in approximately that order because BUNA-N's are dirt cheap.

Good luck,

???

cheers,

Henry

Obviously time for new glasses. 13+, of course.

I had exactly this problem with the factory cassette player on my old '86 535i and the fix was exactly as JRE describes, although I was lucky and at the time I was living close to an electronics supply place so I was able to buy the exact correct drive belt for it. another issue I had was that I had to buy a more expensive cassette adapter so I could listen to my Discman in the car (remember those? dang I feel old now) because the cheap ones that used to be sold would not rotate the non-drive spindle and therefore the deck would think that the tape had run out and keep flipping sides.

Today, I would probably recommend replacing the head unit because there's so much cool stuff you can get that wasn't available in 1995. I just replaced the head unit in my F-150 because it was a radio only, I got a unit with HD radio and the sound quality is amazing. Of course I live near a major city so most of the stations come in in digital, might be of less use if you live farther away. Satellite radio is another option that I'll probably look into on my next car (current company car does not have an "aux in" jack so I didn't bother, but I'm only a couple months away from ordering a new one.) Cost me less than $200 from crutchfield (probably could be had for cheaper if you shop around) and install took less than an hour, including soldering the adapter harness to the new head unit's harness.

nate