Potential Water Damage, Need Help w/ ID

Question

MacBook Air 13" Early 2017

In June 2017 Apple updated its 13" MacBook Air with a newer Broadwell Intel Core i5 processor, resulting in slightly increased performance and battery life.

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tMabs @tmabs

crwdns2934065:0crwdne2934065:0: 1

crwdns2931729:0crwdne2931729:0: Nhl 16, 2025

crwdns2933897:0crwdne2933897:0

Potential Water Damage, Need Help w/ ID

Background

Someone was using the laptop, spilled tea (tea, milk and sugar) onto laptop. Battery was running low, power was on when spill happened. They quickly turned it off and let it sit upside down for 4 days. Tried to turn back on after letting it reach full charge, no response from power button (even after 10 second hold), nothing on screen.

Question

After opening up, there was still some remnants of tea on the bottom of the battery, and dried tea on aluminum backplate. I’ve never worked with liquid damage before, don’t know what to look for, and having a hard time finding a reliable guide. Can anyone see if this is fixable without replacing logic board? See attached pictures (3 of front of board, 2 of back)

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I would love to help, but I don't see your pictures :( Can you make sure you added them?

crwdns2934271:0Nhl 16, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Alisha C crwdne2934271:0

@flannelist apologies!! It's my first time posting here, was a little unfamiliar with how to attach images. They should be attached now, thanks!!

crwdns2934271:0Nhl 16, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 tMabs crwdne2934271:0

@tmabs look like the hardest part is done. you got the board out. I do believe in trying to fix before replacing. Remember that while your board has not been cleaned, troubleshooting will only be a guess. Start off by giving it a good cleaning.

You will need to use some 90%+ isopropyl alcohol to clean your board. For a proper cleaning, use this guide. It was written for an Apple iPhone 3G but all the steps are pertinent to your logic board as well. I can not stress the importance of a good cleaning enough, so do it over and over while replacing the alcohol after each cleaning. It would of course be best to get it ultrasonically cleaned. Do not forget about your I/O board as well as other boards connected to your logic board.

After that, reassemble your MBA and re-evaluate. While you reassemble your MBA make sure that all connectors are cleaned as well. You may need to replace the battery as well, depending on if it got "tea" damaged as well. Then let us know what is going on with it.

crwdns2934271:0Nhl 16, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 oldturkey03 crwdne2934271:0

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I would love to help, but I don't see your pictures :( Can you make sure you added them? — Alisha C
@flannelist apologies!! It's my first time posting here, was a little unfamiliar with how to attach images. They should be attached now, thanks!! — tMabs
@tmabs look like the hardest part is done. you got the board out. I do believe in trying to fix before replacing. Remember that while your board has not been cleaned, troubleshooting will only be a guess. Start off by giving it a good cleaning.

You will need to use some 90%+ isopropyl alcohol to clean your board. For a proper cleaning, use this guide. It was written for an Apple iPhone 3G but all the steps are pertinent to your logic board as well. I can not stress the importance of a good cleaning enough, so do it over and over while replacing the alcohol after each cleaning. It would of course be best to get it ultrasonically cleaned. Do not forget about your I/O board as well as other boards connected to your logic board.

After that, reassemble your MBA and re-evaluate. While you reassemble your MBA make sure that all connectors are cleaned as well. You may need to replace the battery as well, depending on if it got "tea" damaged as well. Then let us know what is going on with it. — oldturkey03

score 0 · Answer 1 · 2025-10-16T17:24:30-07:00

livfe @livfe

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crwdns2931729:0crwdne2931729:0: Nhl 16, 2025

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PG Tips or Tetley's tea? I guess your in the UK?. Ideally the laptop should have been completely disassembled immediately after the spill and cleaned out with the correct 99.9% alcohol solutions as there was some sugar involved.... The board looks bad & even if it were 'cleaned' & 'fixed' it is only a matter of time before the corrosion from the sugar will eat away at the components..... so you'll likely need to replace the motherboard & maybe the charging I/0 if that was also affected. The keyboard might have survived, only time will tell ....

Contact The Bookyard they usually have all the parts in stock at a reasonable price, this well be way cheaper than trying to get it professionally fixed.... or look for a 2015-17 model as they are the same with a broken screen on say Ebay as another option & just swap over the working parts, and then eBay off the unused components to recoup some of the costs. That would be my recommendation in this case for a long term, cost effective and more secure 'repair', Sorry for the bad news.

MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 Logicboard Replacement

MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 Keyboard Replacement