I have an 05 350z and I installed an 08 Z steering wheel which has the radio controls. I also installed an 08 Bose radio.

I have read about doing this upgrade but nothing is conclusive. What exactly do I need to get the radio controls on the steering wheel to work?

 

Anyone, anyone?

 

Just guessing... but I assume the '08 came with a wiring harness that connected the steering wheel controls to the radio. Since you have the wheel & radio you just need the wires that connects them. This wiring harness most likely snakes its way down the steering column and behind the dash, then into the back of the radio. A wrecked '08 in a junkyard (missing its dash already) would be your best bet to find the bits you need.

Unfortunately I doubt it requires just ONE particular harness - instead its most likely a rats nest of many wires and various connectors that your '05 never came with. A technical service manual to compare the wiring diagrams of an '05 vs '08 would clear this up. Then you could build the harness yourself by running the wires and making the required connections as needed. However since this mod involves parts that are required to steer the vehicle I would advise caution... if those wires bind or get stuck in anyway you could lose control over the vehicle!

 

I never got the '08 harness to work at the HU side (though I spent about 4 hours on the phone with Axxess' techs who insisted that I must have been doing it wrong; I took photos for them, showed them exactly what I did and then they got back to me saying it was their bad and that the controller wasn't '08/'09 compatible, after all.) Since the '08 switches on the steering wheel had more Bluetooth controls and fewer controls that were useful to me, I bought the '06 radio/cruise control switches and harness from Nissan and went with that instead. It plugs right into the clock spring connector, but I had to tap into the stereo wires from the back end of the steering wheel. I took the seat out because there wasn't a lot of room to work in and snaked the custom loom into the HU space. It was a pain in the ***, but it worked. It wasn't worth the 3 days it ended up taking me to get the thing figured out and I wouldn't do it again. If you hate having the dead steering wheel controls you get with an aftermarket HU, just get the blank trim piece and separate cruise control switch from one of the base models and put that in instead. You're going to have to pull the steering wheel to remove the controls, unless you want to break a lot of plastic (they're screwed in from the inside).

Mind you, this was a while ago. Maybe someone's put out a better product that ties into the Bose system. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.

 

My original steering wheel had just cruise control on it but I really like the radio controls like I have on my Maxima. I figure if I have a steering wheel from the same car as the radio, then it should not be too difficult. I thought that the radio controls went through a mysterious control box but if they just hook up to the radio, maybe it isnt that hard to get to work. The problem is that junkyards want to sell the entire harness, not just the radio harness.

 

They have to sell the entire harness since the cruise control and radio control are both linked to the same molex connector.

 

That is a lot of hassle for some steering wheel controls on a crappie bose factory stereo.

 

I mean the entire waterfall harness which includes a lot of things from what I understand.

 

Yeah, on the back end, you also have the horn, airbag, illumination, etc. It's a mess to play with. And a correction on my first reply, the control module was made by Axxess, not PAC Audio. I don't have much confidence in either companies from previous experience, but Axxess was a real let-down.

 

So, what is the bottom line in getting my controls to function? Can I wire the steering wheel directly to the radio by making my own harness?

 

Sure!
Is there a DIY guide for it? No.