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This DIY covers the removal of the 350Z steering wheel as well as adding on the audio steering wheel controls from an Infiniti FX to interface with an aftermarket stereo headunit using the PAC SWI-X. This is my way of thanking those on the board who have offered so much help to me to enjoy my Z even more. Now I have figured out the wiring, the whole process should not take more 3-4 hours.

Feel free to ask post any questions/omissions/errors. Good luck and have fun!

Disclaimer: I am posting this to help others, and I try to be as accurate and complete as possible. This is merely a help guide. It is not intended to be a comprehensive reference manual. Some of the procedure may affect your warranty coverage. Also you are going to handle an airbag. Do everything at your own risk and be careful!!

Tools needed:

T30 tamper proof torx bit
?T40 torx bit
10mm socket wrench
19mm socket wrench
Flat head screwdriver
Philips screwdriver
Socket wrench +/- extension
Torque wrench
Dremel or equivalent
Multimeter
Infiniti FX Steering Wheel Switch, part 25550-CG010 (for cars with cruise control) or 25550-CG000 (for cars without cruise control)
PAC Audio SWI-X

1. Using 10mm socket, disconnect both the red and black battery cables.
2. Wait at least 3 minutes before tampering with the airbag.

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3. Pry open the 2 covers on the steering wheel with a small flat head screwdriver. Here is a photo of the left hole that the cover goes over.

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4. Using the T30 tamper proof torx, unscrew the tamper proof torx bolts on each of the airbag. *** This was one of the hardest part for me, the locktite on the bolts and the limited space make hard to use a wrench effectively. Be careful not to strip the bolts, which I almost did. This is what a tamper proof bolt looks like. Look how stripped it is. Since I had to remove the steering wheel multiple times, I simply replaced the tamper proof version with regular M6-1.0 x 16mm bolts later. Per Nissan, you should replace these tamper proof bolts everytime you remove them.

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5. Carefully lift out the airbag. Using a small flat head screwdriver, lift up the two black small covers over the orange and yellow airbag cable connectors. You should be able to disconnect these two cables easily after doing so. Place airbag in a safe place and don’t drop it!!

*** WARNING: Do not reconnect the battery until you have put back the airbag. Otherwise the warning light will come on even if the air bag is put back later. ***

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6. Unplug the small grey connector from the spiral cable. The spiral cable is the black round piece directly behind the steering wheel which prevents all the wires from tangling with the turning of the steering wheel. Luckily for us, Nissan used the same spiral cable for all their cars. In addition to the airbag cables, I think there should 7 wires running through the spiral cable as indicated by the number of pins in the harness connectors.

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7. Make sure you turn the steering wheel to the right until it locks. Using the 19mm socket wrench, loosen the bolt holding the steering wheel. Once removed, you should be able to remove the steering wheel. Also make note and mark the orientation of the wheel in relation to the shaft. You will see the front of the spiral cable unit in the picture,

WARNING: ***Make sure you do not turn the spiral cable unit too much.*** I made an extra turn without knowing and it messed up the VDC’s steering angle sensor until I figured out what was going on..

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8. With the steering wheel out, remove the 2 screws in back of the aluminum covers.

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9. Then unscrew the 2 torx screws holding the horn metal contact piece with a torx bit. Unplug the wire connected to the metal piece (note the yellow wire in this picture should be green...I forgot to take a picture until after I installed the Infiniti unit).

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10. You will see another screw at 6 o’ clock with the hub, unscrew it as well.

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11. Remove the black plastic hub piece from the back of the steering wheel. This will reveal 2 more screws holding the aluminum covers from behind. Unscrew those screws and the aluminum covers and the cruise control unit should come free from the steering wheel.

12. To replace the 350Z cruise control, you will need to remove the unit from the cover by releasing the 4 black tabs as shown.

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13. If you have cruise control, you will need to still use your original Nissan unit because the Infiniti one has an extra button for back-up camera next to the cruise control ON-OFF button. This extra button makes the ON-OFF switch work incorrectly.

Remove the Infiniti cruise control unit, you will see that there is a small vertical slab separating the two buttons in the middle row. You will need to Dremel or cut away that small vertical piece (marked by the red box) in order to fit back the Nissan cruise control buttons. Afterwards you will need to either cut/splice or exchange the pins in the grey harness for the black and red wires from the cruise control unit. It is somewhat tricky to release the connector pins from the harness (and difficult to explain), I just cut and splice the wires ( too lazy).

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14. Put back the steering wheel with your modified Infiniti parts. Yeah!! Looks awesome!!

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15. Now turning our focus to the spiral cable, which you will need to remove the 4 screws on the bottom of the steering column cover.

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16. Remove the trim ring around the ignition.

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17. Pull out the dash piece to the right of the steering column to give more room. You don’t have to remove this piece. There is a screw holding this piece at the bottom, but you don't need to remove it either.

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18. Pull down the bottom cover of the steering wheel column to give you room to work on the back of the spiral cable.

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19. Now you can see the other end of the spiral cable where the wires exit. This is the harness which we will need to add 3 additional wires. It is a white plug on your right at 6 o’clock if you are looking directly at the steering wheel. It is adjacent to a yellow plug. Unplug it by pressing on the tab on the underside.

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20. I couldn’t find the exact connector pins for this harness. I tried using the pins from the original grey harness from the 350z cruise control unit but they were too large to fit. Luckily I was able to extract ones from a computer floppy drive power supply plug such as this. Here is a photo with a pin removed. Although not an exact fit, these pins fit snuggly enough to do the job. I tried calling Nissan parts but was unable to obtain the exact pins. Maybe someone else has a better idea.

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21. Here is a diagram of the spiral cable harnesses (as if you were looking at the side of plugs which you insert into the harnesses). The wires which we add are marked by the thinner red, black and yellow lines.

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22. Here is photo of the extra 3 wires (black, red, and yellow) attached to the harness plug. Notice their locations within the harness. They can be any color of wires as long as you keep track of them. I zip tie the wires together to make them more secure. Plug the harness back. Extended the 3 wires to wherever you need to go. I route them underneath the steering column and then to the center console. Make sure you test the continuity of the 3 lines with a multimeter before you close everything up.