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MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement

What you need

  1. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Lower Case: step 1, image 1 of 1
    • Remove the following ten screws:

    • Three 14.4 mm Phillips #00 screws

    • Three 3.5 mm Phillips #00 screws

    • Four 3.5 mm shouldered Phillips #00 screws

    • When replacing the small screws, align them perpendicular to the slight curvature of the case (they don't go straight down).

  2. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 2, image 1 of 2 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 2, image 2 of 2
    • Use your fingers to pry the lower case away from the body of the MacBook near the vent.

    • Remove the lower case.

  3. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Battery Connection: step 3, image 1 of 2 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Battery Connection: step 3, image 2 of 2
    • Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.

    • It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to "walk" it out of its socket. Be careful with the corners of the connectors, they can be easily broken off.

  4. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 4, image 1 of 1
    • Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

  5. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Fan: step 5, image 1 of 3 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Fan: step 5, image 2 of 3 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Fan: step 5, image 3 of 3
    • Use the edge of a spudger to gently pry the fan connector up and out of its socket on the logic board.

    • It is useful to twist the spudger axially from beneath the fan cable wires to release the connector.

    • The fan socket and the fan connector can be seen in the second and third pictures. Be careful not to break the plastic fan socket off the logic board as you use your spudger to lift the fan connector straight up and out of its socket. The layout of the logic board shown in the second picture may look slightly different than your machine but the fan socket is the same.

  6. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 6, image 1 of 1
    • Remove the following three screws securing the fan to the logic board:

    • One 7.2 mm T6 Torx screw

    • Two 5.3 mm T6 Torx screws

  7. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 7, image 1 of 1
    • Lift the fan out of its recess in the logic board, minding its cable that may get caught.

  8. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Logic Board: step 8, image 1 of 2 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Logic Board: step 8, image 2 of 2
    • Use the tip of a spudger to pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable out from under the retaining finger molded into the upper case.

    • Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable upward to lift the connector out of its socket on the logic board.

  9. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 9, image 1 of 1
    • Disconnect the camera cable from the logic board.

    • The camera cable lifts straight away from the logic board. If your cable feels fragile, use a spudger to pry up on the small metal tabs on each side of the connector head to disconnect the cable.

  10. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 10, image 1 of 2 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 10, image 2 of 2
    • Disconnect the following four cables:

    • AirPort/Bluetooth cable

    • Optical drive cable

    • Hard drive cable

    • Trackpad cable

    • To disconnect the cables, use the flat end of a spudger to pry their connectors up from the sockets on the logic board.

  11. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 11, image 1 of 3 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 11, image 2 of 3 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 11, image 3 of 3
    • Use your fingernail to flip up the retaining flap on the keyboard ribbon cable ZIF socket.

    • Be sure you are prying up on the hinged retaining flap, not the socket itself.

    • Use the tip of a spudger to pull the keyboard ribbon cable out of its socket.

    • The cable may be difficult to insert. If you are having trouble, temporarily attach a piece of tape to the cable to help you guide the cable into the socket.

  12. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 12, image 1 of 1
    • If present, remove the small strip of black tape covering the keyboard backlight cable socket.

  13. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 13, image 1 of 3 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 13, image 2 of 3 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 13, image 3 of 3
    • Use the tip of a spudger or your fingernail to flip up the retaining flap on the keyboard backlight ribbon cable ZIF socket.

    • Be sure you are prying up on the hinged retaining flap, not the socket itself.

    • Pull the keyboard backlight ribbon cable out of its socket.

  14. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 14, image 1 of 1
    • Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the sleep sensor/battery indicator connector up from its socket on the logic board.

  15. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 15, image 1 of 3 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 15, image 2 of 3 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 15, image 3 of 3
    • Grab the plastic pull tab secured to the display data cable lock and rotate it toward the DC-In side of the computer.

    • Pull the display data cable straight out of its socket on the logic board.

    • Do not lift up on the display data cable, as its socket is very fragile. Pull the cable parallel to the face of the logic board.

  16. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 16, image 1 of 1
    • Remove the following nine screws:

    • Five 3.6 mm T6 Torx screws

    • Two 4.3 mm T6 Torx screws

    • Two 7.2 mm T6 Torx screws

    • In some models the screws may be slightly shorter as follows:

    • Five 3.0 mm T6 screws

    • Two 3.6 mm T6 screws

    • Two 6.7 mm T6 screws

  17. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 17, image 1 of 2 MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 17, image 2 of 2
    • Remove the following two screws:

    • One 8.6 mm Phillips screw

    • One 5.5 mm Phillips screw

    • Remove the display data cable retainer from the upper case.

  18. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 18, image 1 of 1
    • Use the tip of a spudger to gently peel the microphone off the adhesive securing it to the upper case.

  19. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 19, image 1 of 1
    • Minding the many connectors near its edges, lift the logic board from the end nearest the optical drive.

    • Without flexing the board, maneuver it out of the upper case, minding the flexible connection to the DC-In board that may get caught in the upper case.

    • Remove the logic board.

  20. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement, Heat Sink: step 20, image 1 of 1
    • Remove the three 8.4 mm #1 Phillips screws securing the heat sink to the logic board.

    • Don't lose the springs held under each of the screws.

  21. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Heat Sink Replacement: step 21, image 1 of 1
    • Carefully remove the heat sink from the processor.

    • If the heat sink seems to be stuck, it may be helpful to gently pry it off the processor with a plastic spudger. Be careful not to break any surface mount components on the processor while prying.

    • Be sure to clean off the old thermal paste and apply a new layer before you reinstall the heat sink. We have a guide that makes it easy.

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

57 other people completed this guide.

Phillip Takahashi

Member since: 08/22/11

86,632 Reputation

87 Guides authored

6 Comments

Really nice repair guide! There's no way I would have gotten this right without your help, but after following your guide my computer works like a million bucks. I had gotten so used to the fan running full speed all the time I almost didn't notice it anymore, but with the new heat sink the fan runs a low speed once again and the computer is nice and quiet like it was when it was new. Thank you.

Bill Schultz - Reply

hello sir i have done all the steps but my macbook still heating up

Naveen Sondh - Reply

Check the radiator, when I first opened mine up it was filled with dust. The radiator has a pipe coming from the CPU and it is right in front of the fan. It has little lines coming from it. I used a vacuum to clean it.

David Badrak -

Thanks for the guide!

I had huge problems with heating up .. I even got a “leg hair burns” :)

I followed this instruction, replaced thermal paste (nothing fancy .. just some “normal” paste from local IT store), cleaned out all the dust (especially from fan)

now its running like new … fan rarely kicks in and when it does it cools it down really quickly. Of course running some intense apps (like lightroom, starting up photos app, many open chrome tabs with youtube etc … ) will do a lot of stress on CPU so it will heat up.

In general some slight “heating up” is always there .. Apple prefers to run their laptops warmer than spinning up fans. But after proper cleaning and replacing thermal paste it is much more manageable.

Small tip: those really small ribbon cables can be a pain in the a** to put back in, so i got them close to the connector, put a little sticky tape on them and used that sticky tape to pull on the cable and push it in the slot.

Luka Stosic - Reply

Like show in the last picture (21) on the left upper side there is a square shaped black plastic cover. Should we put the thermal paste there also ? Or we should not touch it? Thanks!

Alessandro Facchini - Reply

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