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Replacing the battery on a pixel 4 and as I removed the very swollen and sticky old battery I discovered a white wire underneath the battery that is loose on one end. Did this break from somewhere or is it an antenna or something that is only attached at one end?
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Okay, that cable is connected between the charging port assembly and the motherboard, as seen here.
You can't see it in your picture because it's under the metal shield covering the vibration motor. The other end connects to the charging port assembly; you can see it here.
So yeah there should be a connector on both ends. If you're missing the connector, look at where it's supposed to be plugged into and it should be there; unfortunately I wouldn't have much confidence in my ability to put that tiny connector back on the wire and have it connected correctly. I would strongly suggest that you should replace it with a new coax cable. You can use the charging port replacement guide to get to the coax cable; obviously you don't have to remove the charging port, just follow it along far enough to free the antenna cable.
Google Pixel 4 Charging Assembly Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide
I saw several places selling those two cables for the Pixel 4 XL, and those may work, but I'd suggest you stick with one explicitly for the Pixel 4. There were a couple of eBay listings, and here's one on AliExpress that would work (note that it comes in black, but the color of the coax cable doesn't matter).
Good luck; let us know how it turns out!
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Could you provide images? Single white wires tend to be antenna coaxial wires, but they are usually connected to a PCB/flat antenna, in my experience. 4G LTE has multiple antennas so you may or may not be able to still use your device at a reduced velocity.
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Sorry finally figured out where to add a lowered screen capture. Hope you can see that.
That is definitely an antenna wire. I can see that it terminates in a partially hidden IPEX antenna connector. You might be able to go without it, but it would be worth replacing it or soldering it.
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This question was migrated from https://meta.ifixit.com/Answers.
by iRobot
[image|3251409]
The pen is pointing to the errant white wire. It looks like the end may have broken off of a solder joint...but I'm not sure.
by Joe