Apple MacBook Air A1466 Mid-2013 Liquid Damage Repair

Back in September 2014, I got a Apple MacBook Air A1466 Mid-2013 that had been damaged due liquid having been spilled next to it. The good news was that it would boot up, but it didn't detect the boot drive. I took it apart to find that the SSD had suffered a short that had burned off some of the contacts.

Since the computer turned on, I suspected that the MacBook Air simply needed a new SSD. I got a replacement here or search from ebay.com.

After installing the replacement SSD, the MacBook Air still did not recognize the replacement SSD. At this point, I thought that the port might be damaged, so I called up my contact at Xmoddz. The good news is that they were able to replaced damaged parts from the MacBook Air motherboard for a reasonable price. Xmoddz didn't get into the specifics of what was damaged, but I'm guessing some of the fuses on the board blew.

My suspicion of how the liquid damage occurred is around the design of the cooling on the MacBook Air. Firstly, the MacBook Air has very little clearance from the surface on which it sits. the pads on the bottom of the notebook computer only raise the notebook computer a few millimeters from the desk surface. All the ventilation is on the backside of the MacBook Air which when a large enough quantity of liquid was spilled near the notebook computer, the liquid rushed in from the back and flooded the inside of the computer. Then a sudden violent reaction for the computer owner picking up the computer probably created enough motion to splash the liquid around the inside of the notebook computer, thus shorting out the SSD and surrounding components. I would venture to say that gently tilting the computer might have saved the computer.

Find disassembly pictures below.