Well this is how this idea came about.. I've known this feature of the I30/I35 for quite a while and now I HAD TO HAVE IT! I couldn't wait any longer and took my opportunity when Happy4444 was parting out his 02 I35.

The rear window shade is basically just an electric window shade built into the rear dash parcel that motorizes upwards. It is operated via a switch in the front cabin obviously.

Materials/Tools needed:

Rear dash parcel set from an I30/35 with the shade assembly

Flat head screwdriver
Phillips screwdriver
10mm socket and ratchet with a medium extension
10mm wrench
Heavy-duty 14mm socket and ratchet with a long extension
4 M6x1.0 x 1inch bolts, nuts, and washers
A friend
Wire stripper and crimper
Butt connectors
2 Wire taps
4 10’ 18awg wire ( I used speaker wire )
Electrical tape

-Optional- (to carpet rear dash)
2 sq. yards of black felt
Spray adhesive
Scissors
A crap load of patience

ON WITH THE PROJECT!

First things first: Taking everything apart

Pop the bottom rear seat cushion up and take out. Do this by pulling the tabs between the bottom of the cushion and where it meets the floor carpet and pull the front of the cushion upwards and out.

To the side bolsters: locate the 1 10mm bolt at the bottom (red arrow) and take that out. Pull that side of the fold-down down and push the bolster up (yellow arrow) and store away. Repeat this on other side bolster.

Then take your heavy-duty 14mm socket and ratchet and man handle the seat belt bolts (blue arrow). Just follow the seat belt all the way down to the floor and you should find the bolt. After you do this to all of your seatbelts, just let your belts hang for the time being. BUT BEWARE! keep the center seatbelt pulled out so it won’t lock up because mine locked up and DID NOT UNLOCK afterwards. I ended up deleting the center seat belt on my car so I could care less.



Next up are the fold-down hole plastic trim pieces. Just removed these clips as shown in pic.



After ripping your nails off with these clips move onto the C pillars. The plastic trim is clipped on at four points. I’ve shown these spots with arrows so you know where to pull hard and firmly, but do not yank vigorously. Be aggressive if you have to because this piece is very sturdy and the bish is on there, have fun b/c there’s two of them lol



Now FINALY! you are to the target.. the rear dash. Most likely everyone else’s rear dash is stock so you’ll have to pop off all the rear dash tie down plastic covers and Bose sub cover, if you have one. To remove the rear dash you start by removing 4 clips (pictured with arrows). The trick to taking these off is to use the Phillips screwdriver and turning counter clockwise just to pop it out a little then use your flat head and pry those suckers out from behind it.

 

Yay, you are now ready pull the rear dash out. Before you do any pulling DO NOT pull the thin piece in front of the Bose subwoofer hole, it will definitely rip and break. To pull the dash out.. grab each side of the rear dash just in front of where the seat belt hole is and pull upwards and listen for some clips popping. For better grip grab the INSIDE (side closer to the window) and yank upwards there too. Then when you think you popped off all the clips, you’re wrong. Sorry to bust your ***** b/c it is a PIA back there with your head nudged up in a tight position. Anyway, there are 3 bishy clips far back that you cannot get to, BUT, is very easy to get around. Just lift the front portion of the rear dash a little and pull towards you. When the dash is out, you will see three blue clips far back up against the window. Take those out because you need to reuse them if your new dash did not come with it. Then wiggle out the seatbelts through the dash and remove the dash. This is how everything should look (like a mess).



Now.. I also reupholstered my new rear dash black like I did my old rear dash. I used black felt and some very strong spray glue called Duro All Purpose Spray Adhesive. The only tip I have is to work as you go. This means to spray both felt and dash one section at a time and work as go. I did this in 2 piece because the curves are a bit crazy and causes creases. I 2-pieced it the longitudinal way and made the seam at the corner of where the window shade would sit retracted into the dash. This is closest to the c-pillar and far from the passengers and window view so it will be hard to spot if done cleanly.

Here is a pic of the new rear dash stripped of everything.



Here are 2 pics showing the difference of the Maxima rear dash (black) and the I35 rear dash (grey). The difference had no affect on fitment in any way.

 

Here is a pic of the new rear dash reupholstered and the thin green line showing where I seamed the felt.



The seam is barely noticeable

Here is the long awaited rear window shade assembly.



Here is the wiring harness that came with it.



Black for Ground
White for Power ignition controlled i.e. cigarette lighter
Red for switch (tap to ground to open up the shade)
Green for switch (tap to ground to retract the shade)
Bare wire was just a wire shield that was with the harness. I stripped the harness of all-unnecessary wire and wrapping and the bare wire was not needed at all.

Now putting the assembly into the rear dash. You will notice on the shade assembly that there is two big square lumps at the bottom on each side. These are the spring mechanisms for the arms. These square lumps fit perfectly into square holes on the rear dash, you cannot miss it. The shade assembly will just drop right into place. To bolt the shade assembly down, you will need to get your own nuts and bolts because the factory didn’t weld a nut at the bottom for us to just bolt into (BOOO!) I used M6x1.0 x 1inch and had plenty of tread left over. You will need a friend to help you hold the nut/bolt with a wrench while you tighten them.

This is how it should look.

 

Okay, on the bottom side of the I35 rear dash should be 4 blue clips and clip into 4 holes on black brackets located on the shade assembly itself. Pictured below. So make sure when you put the rear dash in that it clips into the holes properly or else the shade will rub when in use.



I used speaker wire for ease of identification of positive and negative wire pair and switch wire pair (red , green). I don’t think speaker wire is bad for this application. It kept my wiring to a minimum. I used two 10’ 18awg speaker wires, which are four wires in total: two wires for the ground and accessory power, two wires for the green and red wires. Make sure you take note of which wire is which. I routed these wires along some factory wires and then ran them along the rocker panel.



Now once you throw the newly carpeted dash in and put the seat belts through, it should look like this:



DON’T PUT ANY MORE PANELS BACK ON YET! Use this opportunity to double check that the shade properly opens and closes or if it even works. You don’t have to spend too much time on this part, just jerry-rig the sucker. Black wire to ground, White wire to 12volt power, tap the Red wire to ground and the shade should go up, tap the Green wire and the shade should go back down.

Once your satisfied with the test, proceed with routing the wire. I’m not going to get into specifics about routing wires, just use your best judgements, but what you are aiming for is the drivers cabin area where it will be accessible to the driver. There are a number of areas where you can place a switch, but again, you use your best judgements.

I, however, had the factory switch and placed it in a quarter holder next to the shifter and in front of the cup holder. It was close, easy to get to, and looked like it just belonged there.

 

The switch looks like this:




Black to ground, Red to Red from shade assembly harness, Green to Green from shade assembly harness. The switch design was just a simple ground switch. There is no power passing through. The two snipped wires up top are just led illumination wires; something I can care less about.

They way I wired the shade assembly harness: White wire and Black wire tapped into 12v Accessory Outlet (on the center console next to the hazard button) harness (White tapped into Brown and Black tapped into Black.)

The way I wired the switch: Red and Green from switch with Red and Green from shade assembly harness and Black tapped into Black on the 12v Accessory Outlet harness. I just crimped the shade assembly and switch Black ground into one wiretap.

It should look like so:



Purple arrow – Ground (note the two wires from the shade assembly and the switch)
Green arrow – Power

Once everything is wired up check one last time that everything works the way it should. If it does, CONGRATS! You can now put all the panels back and enjoy the new look! Don’t have too much fun flipping the switch and break the thing lol But as Happy4444 said, its “pimpn” lol

 

Here are some final pics of how it looks in my car:


center console finished up with switch on the bottom right-hand corner

 

And that’s all folks! Nothing much to it. Overall look of my rear window from outside now.. BLACK! lol The black dash smokes the rear window when the shade is down and with the shade up it blackens it out. It’s so black that if I tried to take a pic, you can’t even see the shade ahah just two metal arms on each side of the window. The plus to this mod is that whenever I see the popo’s I can just hit the switch real quick and *poof* my rear window and the rest of my tint lightens up and gives me a less likely chance of getting pulled over. I love it! So.. am I the first to do this on a Maxima?

Comments and questions welcome! Also let me know how I did on this write-up as this is my first. Remember, this How-To is like a guide, I’m not liable for any damages to anyone else’s car. Thanks everyone!

 

do mine plz
nice job!!

 

sweet idea, ide like to do this in the future.
Say, i have a 3rd brake light up there, with it affect that in any way ?

 

sticky sticky

 

excellent job - I thought about doing this a couple years ago and never got around to it. Great write-up as well.

 

wait, how is this gonna work when my 02 got the middle seatbelt coming out of the rear dash panel?

 

thats pretty sick

 

WHOO HOO! im a useful person now in this forum lol

To Professor: the way the I30/35 rear dash came stock had a 3rd brake light.. i just took all the crap off and covered up the holes to make it as smooth as can be. You can just throw it in stock wise if you want.

To Maxximaa: just dont cover up the hole if your going to re-upholster it.. the I30/35 rear dash in stock has a slot for a middle seatbelt and im pretty sure its in the same location, no worries for ya there

 

Superb writeup. Don't forget to place a link to this thread in the, "How To" Sticky.

Luckily, my 20% tint solves the sun issue, but it's just not as cool as this.

 

Are those I35 rear seats too? maybe should've bought an I35 to begin with, but good job!

 

To n3985: yessir those are I30t seats.. complete set ;D lol nah i dont like the woodgrain in the fully loaded I30/35, i got my car for a deal in the condition it was in, AND i have a sexy Merlot lol

 

Nice job.

 

looks like it came from factory...nice job

 

Excellent write-up and well documented with pictures. Definitely something to consider doing.

 

thanks everyone

 

Excellent work sir!


Now follow up with the rear side window power sunshade how-to aka BMW 7-Series

 

nice job i took the easy way and got 10% tint lol

 

Thinking about this for my 4th gen

 

Nice job, will add it to mine in the future

 

U wana do mine too??

 

reloop: im realy looking into it, but i think that will need modification to my door panels, as in cutting them up. Il see.

made in china: i think its realy do-able for a 4th gen, but you might have to cut square holes on the rear dash metal frame where the shade assembly should sit into.

 

you got skills V, if i didn't have the tints i'd buy your services in a heartbeat.

 

Looks awesome man! I want this for the summer, even with tint.

No issues with the bose sub that would be there?

 

There shouldnt be any issues with the Bose. Just re-use the Bose sub cover when you re-upholster because i believe the Bose sits at a higher level than the dash.

Brian: LOL buy my services? yes master :P

 

Very nice job!! Im guessing you have to cut a hole for the Bose sub?

 

haha i wouldn't go that far. yo on a side note there's a big car show down here in april. i'll send you details soon.

 

Cool man. I put I35 seats in my 4th Gen, and the rear seats lined up/bolted in perfectly which leads me to believe that most of the A32 is the same as the A33. I have the rear sunshade assy here with all the parts, I've just been too darn lazy to try it.
Thanks for the great write up, I can use your pics to see what changes need to be done, if any to get the sunshade installed.

 

6SPD02SE: yes and no.. im not sure which models of I30/35 came with the rear window shade or Bose, or Shade and Bose combo.. but if you happen to get a rear dash that does not have Bose but has the window shade then yes you will have to cut a hole on the dash. It should be easy because is realy only cardboard.

made in china: no problem, always glad to help out. Let me and the .org know how that goes.. take plenty of pics.

 

finaly got a video of it going up and down.. isnt much but just to show everyone.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KOKgtArIphg

 

great write up man, nice vid too

It doesn't seem to get too dark in there with the shade up, how does it look in real life? Are you planning to put this up when you park with the leather out in the summer or drive with it up? Does it "bounce" if you drive with it up.

 

Thanks,

In person, the rear is black unless there is sunlight coming from the front of the car looking from the back.. same thing as night time.. you can see out perfectly from the inside because there's more light outside than inside..

I always drive with it up unless i see the cops then i put it down lol

Nope no bouncing against the window, its nice and taught. It only rattles when i have my music up with alot of bass, thats also when i leave it down when i drive but i rarely drive with my music up so high anyways.

il get better pics from the outside with something in the back window to show the difference.

 

super-cool! I'm a junky for nifty gadgets like this - I may have to try this one out this summer

 

That sunshade is very cool....an option the 5th gens. should have had from the factory. Great job man and a superb set of instructions to complement the work.... props

 

Thanks im always jealous of alot of the things the I30/I35 has but dont like the front look of it as much as the Maxima

my local weather channel says its gonna be raining 24 hr.s tommorow here in RI.. ehk.. sucks.. but im meeting an .org member in a mall indoor lot so if there's adequate lighting il definitely remember to get pics!