Technique: Repairing iPhone Liquid Damage

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User-Contributed Guide

User-Contributed Guide

An awesome member of our community made this guide. It is not managed by iFixit staff.

This guide will help assess damage done to an iPhone that has been submerged or splashed with a liquid, while suggesting techniques to prevent further internal damage and corrosion.

  • Author: pollytintop
  • Time required: one or two hours
  • Difficulty: Difficult
  • Add Note x
  • x 34

Refer to the iPhone repair guides for instructions on disassembling your iPhone. You may need a soft brush, isopropyl alcohol, and a container that is large enough to submerge your iPhones' logic board in alcohol. The cleaning steps may require several repetitions to achieve a good result. These cleaning suggestions may not restore your phone to working order, but once you have eliminated any liquid and cleaned away any corrosion or debris you may be able to determine if any parts need to be replaced. For more information consult the Electronics Water Damage page.

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Add Note Edit Step 1 — Assessing visible external damage  ¶ 

  • Look for liquid or residue between the touchscreen and LCD. This phone shows water build-up between the touchscreen and LCD, and most likely contains more liquid inside.

  • In this case, there is no obvious damage or corrosion in the external dock connector.

  • There is no obvious damage or corrosion in the headphone jack.

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Add Note Edit Step 2 — Disassembly  ¶ 

  • Liquid damage inside the phone may complicate disassembly. Beware of cables and connectors that may be adhered to other components in unexpected ways.

  • Lifting the front panel of this phone, the flex for the dock connector has stuck to the back of the midframe.

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Add Note Edit Step 3 — Assessing visible internal damage  ¶ 

  • The water damage sticker is now pink, indicating that the inside of this phone was flooded with liquid.

  • Residue and corrosion discoloration can clearly be seen on the connectors for the LCD, Digitizer, and proximity sensor, as well as the camera and SIM card slot.

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Add Note Edit Step 4  ¶ 

  • The dock connector water sensor sticker has turned pink too, indicating liquid flooding of this end of the phone.

  • The top of this dock connector looks fairly clean, with only a few green corrosive changes near connector 4.

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Add Note Edit Step 5  ¶ 

  • The rear of the display assembly shows more green corrosion and debris on the LCD and digitizer connectors.

  • Removing the LCD and the back cover of the ear speaker and proximity sensor assembly reveals liquid damage to the speaker.

  • The proximity sensor is only lightly damaged.

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Add Note Edit Step 6  ¶ 

  • Closer inspection of proximity sensor/earpiece flex reveals more corrosion damage.

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Add Note Edit Step 7  ¶ 

  • After removing the logic board, more liquid damage is visible.

  • The vibration motor has some rust.

  • The battery pins have corroded.

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Add Note Edit Step 8  ¶ 

  • Headphone jack connector 5, the vibration motor, and the volume switch show some light corrosion.

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