A:AnswerI do not experience what you've described. If it is scratching your CD then you will experience repeating section or skipping. Change the unit. Thanks.
A:AnswerFirst thing that comes to mind is to change the batteries. The batteries which were in with my player lasted a very short time. I replaced them with 2 AA batteries, and it's fine now.
A:AnswerYou are correct; the player is old. I had a hard time finding a simple one to use in my system; but, it does take care of the sound I want without carrying a boom box or something like that. I do not use adapter.
A:AnswerIf you can't adjust volume on your aux input jack in car then try using headphone jack to connect to car. And then you can use the volume control on the CD player to assist. This works for me.