[Brian86]

My e91 with an OE audio system is intermittently detecting a 'false CD' or 'false CD load' which causes the input to switch temporarily to to the CD.

Doesn't seem like a common problem. Looks like it's a lot more likely for CDs to get stuck.

It's really annoying. Particularly now that even with the radio turned off I can still hear the CD player wirrring away trying to load/spin a CD.

I assume there is an optical sensor that is getting triggered (or untriggered) so my first fix will be blowing a can of air into the slot to try and clear any potential debris off the sensor.

Next I think I'll try actually loading a CD. I've had the car for 6 months and haven't actually tried the CD player. Perhaps just leaving a disk in will stop it from getting into a cycle of continuous false-loading.

I'm not opposed to tearing the thing apart. It took about a dozen fixes to my e36 HVAC and radio before they stopped malfunctioning.