Water damage Advise Please Iphone 4

[nooky]

Hi People, first time post from a new member.

I managed to drop my phone in some water. I turned the phone off, after about 5 mins the phone became hot I shook as much of the water out as i could and put it in rice and moisture absorbent gel and forgot about it for a few days. Before i switched it back i checked for any condensation etc

The phone is back on and working, well sort of!

the LCD has been affected you can see the colours are not right and you can see faint images from previous apps the have been open. also wifi and bluetooth are greyed out. the main problem is when the phone goes to sleep the network coverage drops away and i can't receive calls or texts till i wake it up, when the phone is on charge and goes to sleep and seems to stay connected to my network.

question is I'm wondering should I take the phone apart and clean all the components and fit a new LCD and screen?
can anyone recommend a solvent to clean it with, i have seen people using solvent and a soft brush to clean the motherboard.
could these problems be caused by shorting out connections?

I'm based in the west midlands as well

Any advise appreciated

 

[MikeAllard]

Take it to an Apple Store - they have an out of warranty replacement plan to get the phone replaced for $175, while you wait. At least if you can't fix the phone any other way, this is a reasonable option.

 

[Skull One]

My daughter accidentally let her iPhone 4 fall into the washing machine, yesterday, for about 4 minutes before she discovered it was missing. As an electronic technician for the last 28 years, I did several simple steps.

1) Violently shock all the water I could out it.
2) Used a shop vac to blow air thru the unit for about 15 minutes.
3) Removed the back cover and battery and then blew out the phone for another 15 minutes.
4) Then wrapped the phone with a heating pad on low for 15 minutes. This step is the critical one because it requires you to make sure you don't let the phone get above 140F for more than 10 minutes.

After checking all the major connection points, I fired the phone back up and did a full backup. While the backup was happening I noticed I had lost 3g, wifi and bluetooth were off line. I then repeated a 5 minute blowing session with a 15 minute heating session, then finally rebooting the phone. Each time I did this I got a subsystem back online. Once everything but the LCD display was back to normal, I simply left the unit charging with the screen on with full brightness. While yes the screen looks odd at certain viewing angles, the phone is now 100% useable. I found I can order a replacement screen for $65 on ebay. So at present I am just waiting to see if the phone shows any other failures before I do a full tear down to replace the screen.

 

[Skull One]

Take it to an Apple Store - they have an out of warranty replacement plan to get the phone replaced for $175, while you wait. At least if you can't fix the phone any other way, this is a reasonable option.

Wow, I wish I had known that yesterday while I was off. That would have been a heck of a lot easier than the 4 hours I spent working on the phone.

 

[iJeff]

That's a bit of new news i didnt know about Apple. Thanks for sharing this info with us and good luck to you guys that have water damage.

 

[iCrank]

My daughter accidentally let her iPhone 4 fall into the washing machine, yesterday, for about 4 minutes before she discovered it was missing. As an electronic technician for the last 28 years, I did several simple steps.

1) Violently shock all the water I could out it.
2) Used a shop vac to blow air thru the unit for about 15 minutes.
3) Removed the back cover and battery and then blew out the phone for another 15 minutes.
4) Then wrapped the phone with a heating pad on low for 15 minutes. This step is the critical one because it requires you to make sure you don't let the phone get above 140F for more than 10 minutes.

After checking all the major connection points, I fired the phone back up and did a full backup. While the backup was happening I noticed I had lost 3g, wifi and bluetooth were off line. I then repeated a 5 minute blowing session with a 15 minute heating session, then finally rebooting the phone. Each time I did this I got a subsystem back online. Once everything but the LCD display was back to normal, I simply left the unit charging with the screen on with full brightness. While yes the screen looks odd at certain viewing angles, the phone is now 100% useable. I found I can order a replacement screen for $65 on ebay. So at present I am just waiting to see if the phone shows any other failures before I do a full tear down to replace the screen.

That's good.

 

[MoneyGuy]

My son fell off a boat with his phone in his pocket. I've never damaged a phone and I've had many.

 

[iCrank]

My son fell off a boat with his phone in his pocket. I've never damaged a phone and I've had many.

How is the phone.

 

[Darkstar2007]

How is the phone.

Rotfl!! You know your a true Apple fan when someone mentions a person falling out a boat with an iPhone in their pocket and you ask about the phone!!! That made my night iCrank! Thank you!!! !!!!

 

[iCrank]

Rotfl!! You know your a true Apple fan when someone mentions a person falling out a boat with an iPhone in their pocket and you ask about the phone!!! That made my night iCrank! Thank you!!! !!!!

Lol.  what can I say.

 

[MoneyGuy]

My son fell off a boat with his phone in his pocket. I've never damaged a phone and I've had many.

How is the phone.

Unfortunately, it died a waterly death.

 

[iCrank]

Unfortunately, it died a waterly death.

Agh. That sucks. Well at least your son was ok right?

 

[nooky]

Thanks for the reply, I'm out of warranty so can't really afford to go to Apple and shell out £100 + for a replacement. Can any one recommend any good cleaning products to use I have no problem in taking it apart and even replacing the lcd/screen.