2009 M35 audio trouble

[Larz]

I have read the posts I found from searching, but this is a bit of a different situation.
I was driving my car today tuned to my fav SAT station and without warning, the sound simply stopped.
1) Neither the VOL knob or the VOL buttons on the steering wheel made any difference.
My screen still shows which station I am tuned to, displays the artist and title, but no sound.
2) I switched to FM radio, CD player, etc. No sound and no control from the knob or the steering wheel.
3) Even the rear seat DVD screen plays movies, but no sound - not even through the wireless headphones.
4) When I try to adjust the volume, no volume bars show on the screen.
5) I tested the NAV system and it will guide to a destination, but no NAV voice is heard.
6) I rang my mobile phone from my home phone with the mobile in the car (and link was confirmed on the screen)
no ringing, no indication I was receiving a call. I am able to place a call from my phone, but not from the screen
and the screen doesn't show any of the info that it should show when the phone is in use.
7) When I use the screen to go to "settings" then "audio", nothing happens - no options to adjust fade, balance, bass,
surround, audio pilot, etc.

It's as if I have every option available, but anything that uses the speakers is not working. I'm doubting it is a fuse because all systems work and all other electronics in the car work fine.

Anyone experience this? Any Ideas?
I'm thinking the amp, or some sort of audio control unit has gone titz-up. I hate to leave it at the dealership as I just now got it back after over a week at the body shop, LOL

[Ilya]

You might be right about the amp. I think one of the Y51 guys just had a very similar issue and it was the amp.

EDIT: Yep, here is the thread:

m37-has-no-volume-t598587.html

[Larz]

OK, now this is REALLY strange.
I was vacuuming the rear deck today. I use a portable vacuum that I plug into the cig lighter, so the car was running and so was the Air-Con as it was 90 degrees. The center arm rest has always kept in the down position. Today I slowly lifted it up to fold it into the rear seat and soon as it was folded in, BAM all my speakers started working again. Armrest down - no sounds / Armrest up - everything works fine.
I reckon there is some kind of connector in the armrest for my car since it contains two sets of controls for the DVD player and the seat temp and recline. Something must be loose in there. I will need to work out how it comes apart or get my Infiniti guy to look at it, but for now I have sound !
If I didn't vacuum today, I would have left the car at the dealer on Monday for god-knows-how-long. There is literally NO WAY they would have discovered the armrest was the culprit - or it would have been days and a very pricey labor bill before they figured this one out.

[TDot]

Search the forum, I remember reading something like this a couple years back with the back arm rest and the audio messing up.

[Maximaspd85]

Ive been hunting down the cause of my no audio issue for the last few weeks. Im gonna look into the rear armest tomorrow! This car is ticking me off!!

[Larz]

Search the forum, I remember reading something like this a couple years back with the back arm rest and the audio messing up.

Thank you, TDot! First, I have to say ... a search under the keyword "armrest" yielded 80 pages of posts !! However, I found the post you remembered and that member found a frayed wire in his rear armrest. He didn't share how he took it apart, but I'm sure the FSM will have a diagram. Not sure when I will get to this repair, but I will post details here when it's finished.