Rep: 13
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Hot candle wax spilled on my iPhone and got into my earpiece speaker. Now my earpiece speaker is muffled and sounds buzzy when I am on a call. Does anyone know of something I can clean it with? If not steps to replace it? Would like to try and clean it first.
Thanks in advance
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Here's how you do it.
(I did this on a 3G, but from the pictures, it looks identical to 3GS, and the ear piece is the identical part)
Follow the guide to get the screen off from the rest of the phone.
On the back of the screen part, at the top, there is a black metal piece over the area you would imagine the ear piece is. There is one screw in the top right corner of it. Take that out.
This is the hard part - to do, and to describe.
The metal piece has 3 clips that hold it to the plastic LCD backing. If you examine it, you will see them - this part is basically flat and ends at the edges, but you will see 3 areas that bend down at 90 degree angles. The clips just have another short part at the bottom that bend in 90 degrees, and it digs into the plastic. One is above and one is below where you would imagine the ear piece would be, and the third one is on the upper portion, also Just pry, and they come out.
I made sure that my LCD was face down and I had some pressure against it, that way it didn't bend while I was prying. Also, I actually scratched a little black paint off of the back of the glass when I was digging at them. Dabbed a little black nail polish down in the holes and you can't tell.
The clips kind of look like this (use your imagination):
________
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Go here for a picture of the part.
http://www.hyratech.com/product.php?prod...
Taped to the underside of this clip is the main part of ribbon cable #3, which has built-in proximity sensors and 2 contacts for the ear piece. The ear piece itself has 2 spring contacts on it (similar to the contacts on the battery)and this clip holds the ribbon cable down to contact them.
Once you maneuver the ribbon cable up and out of the area, you can pop the ear piece up with whatever - nothing is holding it in except a little adhesive on the front aspect, under the screen. It will probably break, but you are replacing it anyway. New one just drops down into the same area.
Also, you can probably pop the mesh cover out - it probably has a lot of wax caught in it - no suggestions on how to do it. I think you can buy a replacement piece of mesh for that on eBay.
I know my instructions were long and rambling, but it's really not that hard to do if you're already comfortable opening your iPhone.
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Don't be afraid to bend the clips when you are prying, you can straighten everything out once you get it out of the phone.
Excellent answer. Very detailed and informative. +1
Another tip - the ear piece has a front and back (obvious) and a top and bottom (not so obvious). Make sure you remember which way the original went in, or at least check to see where the contacts are on the ribbon cable.
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Take it apart and try to wipe with a wet paper towel. Sounds like a tricky situation. Use the teardown to guide you.
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The teardown guide does not tell me how to remove the earpiece speaker. I can get the phone apart but does anyone know how to remove the earpiece speaker?
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Does anyone know how to remove the earpiece speaker? please advise
by Tunz