Technique: Repairing iPhone Liquid Damage
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User-Contributed Guide
This guide 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
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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 phone's 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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Edit Step 1
— Assessing visible external damage
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Look for liquid or residue between the touchscreen and LCD. This phone shows water condensation between the touchscreen and LCD and likely contains more liquid.
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.
Edit Step 3
— Assessing visible internal damage
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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 LCD, digitizer and proximity sensor as well as the camera and SIM card slot.
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