MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 Lower Case Replacement

Written By: Adam O'Camb

Comments: 44

MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 Lower Case Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

5 - 10 minutes

Introduction

Use this guide to replace a damaged MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 lower case.

Tools

P5 Pentalobe Screwdriver Retina MacBook Pro and Air

Parts

Step 1

Before proceeding, power down your MacBook. Close the display and lay it on a soft surface, top-side down.
Use a P5 Pentalobe driver to remove ten screws securing the lower case, of the following lengths:
Two 9 mm screws
Eight 2.6 mm screws

Pulling the fan cable out was terrifying but you actually just pull on the cable itself. No way to get any leverage at the connector to dislodge it. Did come out easily but like I said, scared me!

allison - 20/07/15

Draai de schroefjes voorzichtig los en leg ze op een stabiele plek neer en let erop dat de schroefje een verschillende lengte hebben.

bwgvanderveer - 01/11/15

I thought I could replace my 256 Gb SSD with 512? regards

ola m - 20/11/15

Do you have good Test Point Voltages? It appears there are silver colored Test points on the I/O Board. I am working on a water spill and trying to troubleshoot if both the I/O board and the Logic need replaced.

andrew - 10/01/16

It's probably not necessary but may be a little safer to completely discharge the old battery before replacing it.

Larry Smith - 11/01/16

tell a model that was not inferior to the speed of the one in the laptop.

Thank you

ilyabuhov - 13/01/16

Do i need to order tools separately to replace the battery i just ordered?

anne uhlir - 07/09/17

im looking for a Logic Board for a

Apple - MacBook Air® - 13.3" Display - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 128GB Flash Storage (Latest Model) - Silver Model: MQD32LL/A

Any help is appreciated.

Jamie Comstock - 03/12/17

P5 pentalobe screwdrivers are too big! The correct size for these screws are p4 pentalobe. P5 pentalobe was just able, with difficulty, to turn some of the screws. If the screws were at all tight, my p5 was unable to get them out, and started to strip the screws. A p4 screwdriver fit better and removed the screws with ease. (I was using high quality Wiha brand screwdrivers.)

William Skinner - 20/08/18

I had same experience (with MacBook Air 13-inch Mid-2012) … had to get P4, which worked swimmingly

eric - 03/08/19

Very simple installation. The screwdriver heads were exactly what we’re needed, one head for the outside case screws, the other for the screws holding the battery in place. The computer started right up. Now to see how the battery holds up, but I have a good feeling about this!

Dennis Eaton - 22/08/18

My P5 and the T5 worked perfectly with my early 2015 Air 13”! And it is super fast! Thank you iFixit!

Pennny Beach - 13/10/18

The supplied kit and instructions worked perfectly!

Nikolay Andreev - 12/01/19

Comments that the P5 pentalobe are too large are absolutely spot-on. There is no way the P5 pentalobe bit I have will work with the MacBook Air without destroying the screws. Hard target search for P4 pentalobe bit in progress…..

joemoog - 24/03/19

Bonjour j’aimerais changer mon SSD de 128 Go pour en mettre un de 512 Go. Je ne sais pas ce qu’il faut prendre car il faut qu’il soit compatible avec le macbook air A1466. J’aurais vu un Samsung Evo 970 500 Go mais si je ne me trompe pas, il faut un adaptateur.

Merci pour votre aide.

chicco33 - 21/04/19

oui, vous aurez besoin d’un adaptateur, pour completez le changement.

Dan - 13/06/19

The tool kit should include tweezers for re-inserting the battery connector.

Andre Clement - 19/05/19

P5 pentalobe worked perfectly for me. Instructions were spot-on. Antenna connections were a bit fiddly to refit but got them in ok.

michaelquinnell - 02/07/19

Maybe the problem some are experiencing is that the designations are confusing (blame Apple rather than iFixit). the P2 is also known as PL1. The P5 is also known as PL4. The P6 is also known as PL5. So it is possible to mistake the P6 (PL5) for the P5 (PL4), meaning it (P6-PL5) will be too big, while the P5 (PL4) will be just right. Sort of a 3 Bears explanation, but it is very confusing.

Thomas Lewis - 05/07/19

To add to this. In searching for the P5 screwdriver to buy in UK, as far as I can tell, it is also known as

Pentalobe 1.2(mm)

also

P4 = 0.8

P6 = 1.5

Just unscrewed the back case of MacBook Air 13” mid 2011, with no problems using Pentalobe 1.2

nijafe - 02/10/20

I have not replaced a display on the A1369 but have done many A1466 which is a newer 13” model. They seem really similar and its not clear why one needs to remove the logic board to remove the display. The antenna cables on the A1466 dont have to rest under the logic board but can be tucked in the hinge crevice. Cant this same thing be done with the A1369?

Sean Love - 22/10/19

Did mine today - but new battery wasnt charging. Went back in and noticed the battery connector cable was not quite 100% “seated. It was sticking out by less than a millimetre! - you need to give it quite a firm push in to get it seated properly. Otherwise - all ok .

John Brennand - 30/01/20

Just installed on a MacBookAir6,2 (13-inch, Early 2014).

Was very easy.

New iFixit battery looks great so far:

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 4922 -> 7333

Jonathan Cross - 08/03/20

can you tell me which size of screwdrivers you’ve used to crack it up, please? I have the same model and size,

hawk_lpc - 13/06/20

Screw P5 Pentalobe 1.2

Mario Verlent - 15/05/20

Install went flawlessly. Only challange was reattaching blue tooth antennas. Those sockets are so tiny.

Joel Sebastian - 21/08/20

Installation was a little challenging at first because the instructions on this site did not perfectly match my model (late 2013 to early 2015).

Found this video on YouTube which described the procedure perfectly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lue6lVWh...

Also the Ifixit kit I received was well put together with everything I needed and more. The calibration went perfectly and I am very pleased. Will buy again!!

Donald Niamath - 02/09/20

Gently pulled out connector of old battery, then pressed and held the power switch for 1 minute. Unscrewed and removed the old battery. Pressed and held power switch for 1 minute again. I know from previous work that this helps drain charge from spontaneous recharging as the dielectric recovers. Gently “fine tuned” leads from new battery to connector till connector stuck out at right angle to the edge of battery. Held the battery by the edges and let the connector slide into the socket. Set the battery down and put the screws in all the way. Then checked that the connector was completely seated before tightening the screws. The laptop come on immediately and showed 98% charge and registered normal (checked in “About this Mac”. Very happy to this point. Now for calibration.

Amir Zaidi - 27/09/20

Thank you very much for the guilde. My MBA2011 had reborn !

Billy Wong - 20/11/20

Allow for electrostatics, otherwise you may cook components on the logicboard /motherboard (like I did with one of these!)

See great advice: Electrostatic Discharge

Fletcher Cole - 25/11/20

… und wenn du eines von diesen wirklich kleinen Schräubchen vermisst: bevor du den Boden aufkehrst oder mit einem starken Magneten absuchst, schau mal am seitlichen (magnetischen) Ladekabelanschluss nach … ?

... and if you miss one of these really small screws: before you sweep the floor or search it with a strong magnet, take a look at the (magnetic) charging cable connection on the side … ?

Blatt - 17/02/21

Fot All People ha ing trouble finding their SSD

DONT PRESS CMD +R + POWER

instead press

OPTION+CMD+R +POWER

I just installed Monterrey with WD black sn 770 SSD in m'y macbook air 2015

Albert -

IFixit just had me submit "my story" re. fixing my MacBook Air 2013.

This repair was NOT difficult. The battery is enclosed in a plastic frame. It is NOT glued in like the newer models of Apple laptops. And unlike older laptops, the battery is not totally enclosed in a plastic housing. So once you remove the screws holding the batterie's frame, you can remove the battery.

Follow the instructions. Read the comments. Also read the comments re. installing a new battery.

Good luck. - Eric J.

ECJohansen -

On the back of the laptop, notice that each screw is angled a little bit inward, aiming toward the middle of the laptop. Keep your screwdriver lined up with the screw (angled a bit outward as seen at 01:23 in the video: https://youtu.be/tToAwO6f-SY&t=83). This will help you get a good bite on the screw to get it out and avoid stripping the head of the screw.

Use the same angle when putting each screw back in. If the screw is in line with its hole it should not feel like you are fighting to screw it in. If it does, check your angle and back up a little; you should feel the screw fall into line.

Rich Garella - 30/10/23

IFixit just had me submit "my story" re. fixing my MacBook Air 2013.

This repair was NOT difficult. The battery is enclosed in a plastic frame.

shrhh -

Step 2

Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.
Remove the lower case and set it aside.

There is a nub on the inside of the case which is attached to the battery. When you try to pull it open, it appears to be attached to the plastic casing of the battery, which sometimes splits. I gently unhooked the nub from the battery before removing the case fully. This seems to happen if the battery has suffered some drop damage (plastic parts broken around screws and parts of plastic frame split). Just an FYI in case your lower case doesn't pull away easily.

Jeannie Crowley - 25/05/17

To add - the slim 1cm tab “nub” is on the centre of the back cover & fits into a hole in the battery frame. I ran my fingers around the whole of the cover to eventually here it click out.

nijafe - 02/10/20

When closing this back up make sure that the antenna cable is tucked away neatly

Gabriel - 12/04/18

So this is a legit back cover for MacBook Air?

ASHANTI SMITH - 25/06/19

What about disconnecting the battery?

Luke - 06/08/20

I bought the part and tools from iFixit and followed the directions. The mechanical part went smoothly - maybe 10 minutes to disassemble/replace/reassemble.

Getting Catalina (the current MacOS) to install was not working until I used Cmd-Opt-R (as noted in the OWC paper sheet that came in the box) which brought up the proper installer - I believe from a pre-prepared bootable SD card but it’s hard to say. From there the install succeeded taking ~1.5 hours.

Beware that (a) the install requires a working internet connection for verification and updates, and (b) the system must have been running at least macOs 10.13 (High Sierra) before the install in order to have an EFI BIOS that recognizes the SSD.

Lance Berc - 23/10/20

As noted by others, be a bit careful removing the lower case. There is an oblong black plastic locator very near the center of the lower case. Unless you gently pry the bottom cover pretty much straight up, you will break the ends off of the locater.

BobY - 15/03/21

Thanks for the detailed photos. When repairing equipment, I don’t really like to disassemble plastic parts, they can be damaged, but your screenshots help a lot. For my studies, I am writing an essay comparing the reliability of laptops from various manufacturers and the complexity of their repair, maybe it will be useful for someone to check the essay for plagiarism here essay checker, when comparing different manufacturers, I understood why people love Apple so much. The minimum number of failures. Of course, repairing it in an official service is not cheap, but with the help of such detailed instructions, you can do it yourself and save a lot.

Nexus -

The screwdriver bit to use on these case screws is not named, but I found that my "CR-V 1.2" did the job nicely.

The driver for the screws inside the case are named, as "T5".

Jim Henderson -