09 m35x with full tech package. My kids were fiddling with the buttons on the rear armrest. Now I get no audio from the speakers when the armrest is in the down position. As soon as it's raised back up audio resumes. It never used to do this. Is this a feature they turned on or do I have a short in the armrest wires like others have had.

I suspect a short

I'm saying the same thing

There was a post about this. I remember because it happened to me as well. Perhaps this is why they no longer offer full controls in the rear seat anymore?
post6748346.html?hilit=rear%20armrest#p6748346

I found the problem. The rear armrest has two wire looms going out of it. One loom goes out to the right seat and the other goes to the left seat. The wire loom going to the left seat has the majority of the radio controls. On my car, there are two wires that have broken. One is a white wire with black stripe and the other is a white wire inside of a brown shielded casing. You can see it in the picture below. When I reattached these wires everything started working again!! The thick brown and green wires shown in the picture go directly to the radio controls in the rear armrest. The majority of the rest of the wires go to the seat switches (heater, recline, etc.).

Thanks for the update & picture. Now you can go back to being chauffeured around in style... or rather chauffeuring the kids.

So what exactly pinched and cut up those 2 wires? Can the harness be duct taped out of the way?

The wires weren't pinched. They just stretched and snapped where the armrest rotates. The wire harness is too short from the factory so after many years of bending and stretching they gave out.

When the armrest is up, the wires are nice and loose but when it goes down, it pulls on the wires. When I put everything back together I left a little extra slack to prevent this from happening again.

Did you have to remove just the arm rest? or the whole rear seat to get to those wires? My service rep at Infiniti talked me out of having my issue fixed as he would have to charge me by the hour whilst his techs poke around back there and God knows that may take 5-10 hours (at over $100 each) to do 30 cents worth of repairs.

The armrest does not come out at all. I have the rear reclining seats so I removed the bottom portion of each seat. They just pull right up. Then I removed the seat backs. Those were a little tricky but there are 3 clips that need to get pulled to remove it. The FSM has a good diagram.

Once the seats are out you can begin to see the wire harness going to the armrest. Now go to the back of the armrest and undo the two Phillips screws that secure the hinge of the armrest tray cover/lid. Once the lid is removed you can lift out the tray from the armrest giving you plenty of access to the wires.

Now undo the armrest wire harness connectors behind the seat as well as the zip ties and fish the harness out from behind the armrest. Now you'll have full access to the harness which is only taped so undo the tape and examine the wires. I would definitely start with the wire harness going to the left side (drivers side) of the car since that has the radio controls. This might save you from having to remove the seats and wires from the right side. Unfortunately I started with the right side and had to move to the left after finding nothing wrong. So I removed twice as much as needed.

Good luck.

Great! Thanks mate ! I think there are only about 5 of us on here with this great rear seat system. I always wondered why Inifniti was so daft for not offering this option after 2010, but maybe they just couldn't be bothered to re-design the wiring and harnesses.

Larz, when go in reverse, do you see the yellow lines on the navigation screen display showing which direction the car is going depending on the angle of the steering wheel? The lines move left and right when you turn the steering wheel.

When those wires broke, I not only lost audio but I lost this feature as well. If you're still seeing the lines that move with the steering wheel then this may indicate that the problem is not with the armrest wires although I would still check anyways.

mattd860 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:37 pm

... yellow lines on the navigation screen display showing which direction the car is going depending on the angle of the steering wheel...

When those wires broke, I not only lost audio but I lost this feature as well...

Crazy. Maybe the FSM will show how they are connected, but it's a weird symptom considering the issue.
That makes me think I can't just plunk the premium rear seating package that easily into my sport model. Just wishful thinking, the rear seat is rarely occupied.

Seems to me that most models receive harnesses for options that are not ordered for the car as it goes further down the assembly line. I've read where our cars have been upgraded simply by obtaining the upgrade and plugging it into the harness already in the car, but not used. Perhaps their is a harness for the rear theater seats but it isn't connected because that particular car went down the line without that option? It's worth a squinz to see if the harness is there (before buying the rear seats, of course, LOL).
I believe the rear seats on the cars with theater option don't just have the gizmo attached for reclining, but they are actually different seats all together. Seems mine have a higher back than the standard seats.
If I yank my seats out and find the wiring is NOT the trouble, I will not fret. I will take that opportunity to install sound deadening sheets all over the exposed areas and chuck the completely rubbish material installed by the factory. I will also clean everything that I can reach. Either way, I will get an improvement.

Larz, my rear seats have the heaters and recline. Out of curiosity, do you have the lines on the nav screen that move with the steering wheel when going in reverse?

I have similar problem that appears to be caused by rear armrest as well. However, I have been having problems removing the rear seats to access it. Sounds simple I know, but it's proving annoyingly difficult. Does anyone have any pictures/tips on how to remove the rear seats? I have the heated/powered rear seat option.