Hi all,

I am trying to remove my rear shelf in order to access my rear sunshade which is stuck in the deployed/UP position.

I saw a pretty detailed thread about this and gave it a go this afternoon. Have just realised that my W211 might have a custom rear seat arrangement as it uses electronic latches to allow the rear seats to fold forward.

this is a bummer as all the resources I have seen so far regarding the rear shelf removal might not apply to my model.

If you see the photo attached, you will see two electronic latches fixed in place which prevent the rear shelf from being lifted up.

I also attached a photo from the back.

 

So what I learned from taking out my rear shelf and mostly destroying it, was that the sunshade attaches to the shelf, and is meant to come out with it, and it (sunshade) also bolts in 4 places (two bolts, two nuts) to the sheet metal. Once you remove those two bolts and two nuts the rear of the shelf/shade should be able to be lifted. After that there's some clips in the middleish, just in front of the speaker grill, those should pop out with some gentle persuasion. One thing to avoid, is do not try to remove the speaker grill to gain access to anything. It won't help, and will probably break.

 

Hi Bob, Thanks for that, I removed the 4 fasteners you mentioned and the rear shelf seems mostly loose. However, as I try to lift up the shelf with the sunshade, there seems to be some resistance from somewhere - do you remember needing to disconnect much wiring prior to lifting out the shelf??

I managed to find a WIS manual for removing the rear deck (see attached) and it does require the speaker grill to be removed to disconnect some wiring. Fortunately I got mine out in one piece, however I am struggling with step 6 - where it involves removing the electrical connectors behind the speaker housing.

as you can see in this photo, they seems to be hidden beneath the trim - meaning I physically cant acess them. I have tried lifting out the trim but there seems to be some resistance coming from somewhere and I dont want to force it. Do you mind elaborating how you got your shelf out?

 

If you are sitting on the rear seat facing shelf, slightly lift the shelf from front to get access to clips (plastic) on left and right side, get an 8mm wrench to lose the screws, with some wiggling you should be able to get the shelf out without breaking any of the plastic tabs. Good Luck.

 

On my 07’ E63, the rear sunshade is mounted to the rear Shelf and on mine those 2 Nuts and 2 bolts were both 10mm, not 8mm? What the WIS doesn’t mention is exactly how to remove the Speaker and or if it must be removed at the same time as the rear shelf. Well I can say that yes, they both have to come out together as the Sunshade will not clear the Speaker if it remains “attached” to that rear deck! As such, since I had both front seats removed as well as the back seat with both backrests folded down and already had carefully pulled the upper deck over those seat release latches, I tried to initially pull out just the shelf but was getting nowhere until I rotated my body 180 degrees with my head under the Subwoofer where I could reach under the back deck after feeding it as far forward as I could by jamming both hands thru those square holes! I can only imagine how that is what those holes must be there for! (Subwoofer return ports?)

Anyhow, you can then reach around front under the shelf and have to grab each side where those surround speakers are using them as handles to rotate the Subwoofer (unscrewing) out of the back deck. Only then can you then pull both out together. Also, there is molded foam underneath which also surrounds that subwoofer. You must make sure to gently pull it underneath the subwoofer as the front will break if you just yank the Subwoofer out! Ask me how I know?

I managed to pull out the Speakers (Sub and surrounds) first after obviously disconnecting the wiring which is done after removal of the speaker cover which has all those clips. To remove it, start at one end and one by one pry up the front side only as the rears don’t “clip-in” but only wedge in. So upon reinstall, the rear pops in first IYKWIM? Also, before you pull out that shelf, you have to disconnect the electrical connection to the Sunshade on the Driver Side. Once it’s out, under the foam it’s mostly just bare metal just waiting to be treated with Second Skin Damplifier and maybe some CCF under all that foam! While it’s all out it’s a perfect time to install some rear window tint while I figure just how I’m going to install 2 X 5” Focal “Surrounds” in place of those 2 1/2” Alumaprene HK’s on each side of the Sub! That’s the plan as it stands now. All other speakers will be new driven by Gladen and Dirac DSP fed Digitally via Coax from the HU (Joying) and via Optical Toslink from my COWON Player!

So reinstall will require feeding the top shelf in first just halfway whereupon the Speakers are to be fed in underneath the shelf and rotated in place, assuming one sticks with the OEM Subwoofer. Scratch that! After removing that OEM Speaker bracket containing the Subwoofer and surround speakers, I ended up cutting out the ring of that dinky subwoofer and used a heat gun to melt the glue securing its mount to the bracket! Since I’m avoiding building a custom back deck as my JL Boxed Sub Wedge will reside in the trunk. I treated that deck as best I can and put some Damplifier Pro with cutouts for those holes on each side placed under the OEM Foam. I intend on using some Carriage Bolts to lock down that back deck to hopefully limit any vibration after treating its corners with CCF. The 2 5” Focals back there will be attached to the OEM Brackets on Custom Rings.