So, I live in cold PA and have been having a few weird issues. My CD's skip in the cold weather and skip when I have the fan on. Also my heat doesnt work sometimes and I have to twist the fan **** back and forth a few times before the hot air will shoot out.grrr...this is frustrating to an airheaded chick.

 

Any suggestions? (the cd's aren't scratched and when I try to turn on the heat-the car is heated up)

 

2004 rx8 (according to your new member post). Basic warranty is out.

i'd replace the cd player. Expensive... :/ in terms of the heat issue, without looking at your car it sounds like the control head is going out--at least on that ****. I say that because it's electronically controlled, and you can eventually get the heat to work. Only the whole control head is available for purchase from Mazda. I recommend before you purchase such an expensive part though, visit your dealer and pay their diagnostic fee to have them determine the cause--I'm in Texas, otherwise I'd drop by and figure it out for cheaper or free hehe.

The only reason I suggest going to the dealer about it instead of an aftermarket shop, is that your dealer has technicians that are specifically trained on and experienced with Mazdas. They also have all of Mazda's resources for finding out what the problem is. These control heads aren't too difficult to replace, but if they diagnose it and that's the problem (I highly suspect it is), they're going to try to sell you the part and the labor time to replace it. If you don't mind fixing it yourself for something simple like that and you want to save some money, decline the repair, and then start looking on ebay/craigslist/etc for a working replacement.