Faced a choice between a quick fix and a full board swap on a 2018 MacBook Air

The customer's unit had a classic liquid spill on the left side, taking out the trackpad and keyboard. I could either try to clean and repair the specific corrosion on the logic board, which might take 3 hours with no guarantee, or just source a known-good board for about $280 and swap it. I went with the board swap. It took me 45 minutes, the machine booted right up, and the customer was happy to pay the flat rate. In my experience, on that model, the corrosion tends to wick under the chips where you can't see it, making a repair risky. Has anyone else found that with newer Apple boards, a straight swap is becoming the more reliable choice for liquid damage?

3 comments

3 Comments

cooper.viola3mo agoTop Commenter

Heard the same thing from a repair guy on a podcast. Said newer boards are a nightmare to clean properly. Just swap it and save the headache.

king.lisa3mo ago

Right? @cooper.viola, everything's made to toss now.

john4302mo ago

Yeah, that "swap it and save the headache" line is dead on. I saw a teardown video where they showed how the new solid-state boards trap grease and crumbs in these sealed layers. Once something gets in there, you can't really get it out, it just ruins the board. Makes total sense why they'd say to just toss it.