Motorola Moto X4 Battery Replacement

Written By: Arthur Shi

Comments: 17

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

30 minutes - 1 hour

Introduction

This guide shows how to remove and replace a battery for the Moto X4.

Before you begin, download the Rescue and Smart Assistant app to backup your device and diagnose whether your problem is software or hardware related.

If your battery is swollen, take appropriate precautions.

For your safety, discharge your battery below 25% before disassembling your phone. This reduces the risk of a dangerous thermal event if the battery is accidentally damaged during the repair. If your battery is swollen, take appropriate precautions.

Tools

Parts

Step 1

Before you begin, turn off your phone.
Heat an iOpener and apply it to the left edge of the phone for two minutes.
You may need to reheat and reapply the iOpener several times to get the phone warm enough. Follow the iOpener instructions to avoid overheating.
A hair dryer, heat gun, or hot plate may also be used, but be careful not to overheat the phone—the display and internal battery are both susceptible to heat damage.
As you wait, take note of the the following areas:
Display cable—be careful not to slice too deeply near the edge here, or you may damage the display cable.
Fingerprint sensor cable—be careful not to slice too deeply near the edge here, or you may damage the fingerprint sensor cable.

Complete novice. Getting old screen off was time consuming! I was too afraid of ruining something by overheating. Spent many hours trying to use iopener, afraid to risk bursting it in microwave. Read many comments in the iopener use guide; a guy said to get the screen temp up to 120-130F. Saw several youtube videos esp. Witrig one on replacing Moto x4 screen, they used heat gun 100C=212F so I got braver and put my phone on kitchen hot plate. Measured temperature by laying stem of candy thermometer on the surface. When hot plate got to 150-160F I finally got a pick under phone ‘s glass edge & got the screen off. Hot plate temp. not stable, guess phone was there a few minutes. May have damaged display but was replacing it anyway. Now new screen installed everything working properly! I’m not sure I was using the suction cup when I finally was able to push the pick under the edge.

Nahariyah Mosenkis - 08/06/20

Step 2

Apply a suction cup to the screen, as close to the heated edge as possible.
Pull on the suction cup with strong, steady force to create a gap in the seam.
Insert the point of an opening pick into the gap.
Depending on the age of your phone, this may be difficult. If you are having trouble, apply heat to the edge and try again.

On the left side it is a very thin strip of adhesive—but there are other places where there is alot more adhesive—If you look at the black part of the new adhesive-if you have the phone specific adhesive thing—you will get an idea what you might be trying to push through at any given spot on the phone. orient the new one over the old screen to line up holes etc-to understand where the adhesive is.

Nahariyah Mosenkis - 08/06/20

Step 3

Slide the opening pick along the edge to slice through the adhesive.
Leave an opening pick in the seam to prevent the adhesive from re-sealing.

Step 4

Heat the top edge of the phone with an iOpener.
Carefully slice around the corner and through the top edge to separate the adhesive.

Step 5

Heat the screen's right edge with an iOpener.
Be careful not to slice too deeply near the cables to avoid damaging them.
Use an opening pick to slice along the right edge to separate the adhesive.

Step 6

Repeat the previous steps to heat and slice the bottom edge of the phone.

Step 7

Do not try to remove the screen yet—it is still attached to the phone by delicate flex cables.
Carefully lift up the left edge of the screen and cut away remaining adhesives with an opening pick.

Step 8

Swing open the screen and prop it up with a small box as you work on disconnecting the flex cables.
During reassembly, this is a good time to power on your phone and test all functions before sealing it up. Be sure to power your phone back down completely before you continue working.

Step 9

Slide the point of a spudger underneath the fingerprint sensor cable and gently pry up to loosen the cable from the phone.
Do not pull on the cable. It is still attached to the phone by a delicate ZIF socket.

Step 10

Use the point of a spudger to flip up the lock bar on the fingerprint sensor's ZIF socket, near the bottom right of the phone.
Use tweezers to carefully slide the fingerprint sensor cable out of the socket.

Step 11

Use an opening tool to flip up the wide lock bar on the display cable's ZIF socket, near the top right of the phone.
Use tweezers to carefully slide the display cable out of the ZIF socket.

Step 12

Remove the screen.
During reassembly, follow this guide to clean the existing adhesive off and install custom-cut adhesives for your phone.

I found that the subsequent steps will be smoother if you spend a little time at this point cleaning out the old adhesive pieces. The picture above shows pulling off some of the old glue strips, but the bullet points don’t mention it. Removing the mid-frame and other steps is easier if the old adhesive has been cleaned out.

Gordon Bolt - 19/07/20

Good point Gordon! I’ve adjusted the wording on the second bullet to point people in the right direction.

Arthur Shi - 20/07/20

I’d already used the free form adhesives to glue the screen back on before I realized the kit came with a ready-to-go adhesive sheet. It’d be nice if this were mentioned (or pictured) here.

Paul Ferrell - 23/12/20

The provided replacement screen does not have the black plastic film w/ 5 x 3 holes in it

photo to illustrate: top is replacement screen. Bottom is old screen, w/ black film w/ holes

Not sure how to proceed here.

Etienne Grossmann -

Follow-up:

the black holey plastic sheet can be removed w/ the hot glue-softening iOpener

and can kinda be placed on the new screen's metal surface

Etienne Grossmann -

Step 13

Remove the following twenty screws securing the midframe:
Eleven silver 2.7 mm-long T3 screws
Nine black 3.6 mm-long T4 screws
The midframe is still held in place by clips.

For some reason, my brand new T4 screwdriver didn’t fit the 9 designated T4 screws very well—it seemed a little large. So I carefully tried the T3 screwdriver and it worked perfectly! Not sure if the head has changed sizes on those longer screws in some assemblies….

Kenneth Lassman - 11/11/20

Hi Kenneth! I’m glad the T3 worked! There have been many instances with Moto phones where the screw tolerances are quite variable—they normally shows up in the T3-T4 range.

Arthur Shi - 12/11/20

Step 14

The next few steps show how to loosen the midframe clips.
Insert the flat end of a spudger under the right edge of the metal midframe and pry up to loosen the midframe.
Insert an opening pick in the edge to hold the midframe in place.

Step 15

Insert the flat end of a spudger under the lower right edge of the midframe and pry up to release the midframe clip.

Step 16

Grasp the lower edge of the midframe and pull the edge slightly to the right, to clear the metal midframe clip.

Step 17

Insert the point of an opening pick under the top left corner of the midframe and twist slightly to release the top clip.

Step 18

Remove the midframe.
To reinstall the midframe:
Align the the midframe's top edge to the phone and press it into position.
Shift the bottom edge slightly to the left, to maneuver the left metal midframe clip underneath the phone edge.
Press the midframe's bottom edge into position.

Step 19

Insert the point of a spudger underneath the top edge of the battery connector.
Be careful not to dislodge the small surface-mounted components surrounding the socket.
Gently pry up the connector to disconnect the battery.

Step 20

To re-connect the battery, align the connector on top of the socket, and press it down with your finger or a spudger.

After disconnecting the battery, there is 1x T3 (near the camera) and 2xT4 screws (near the headphone jack and usb port) that had to be removed, then the camera clips flipped up, then that board carefully removed (after ejecting the sim/memory cards) before being able to get to the two screws for the camera module.

For reassembly, the camera cables had to be carefully held back while the board was repositioned.

Steve Welander - 04/04/20

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the feedback! What you are describing sounds like the steps found in this guide. Can you see if anything is missing there? Thanks!

Arthur Shi - 06/04/20

Hi Arthur, I am doing this repair right now, and yes, this guide should have steps 21-25 from the linked guide inserted after step 20. Getting to the Rear Camera requires removing the motherboard, and indeed you can see in the pictures in what is currently Step 21 of this guide that the motherboard is removed (note the missing large silver rectangle in the upper-left, which is the SIM card tray, for instance, or any electronics in the upper-right)

Joel Bradshaw - 03/06/21

Although notably, the vibrating motor doesn’t have to be unplugged from the socket, just removed from the case along with the motherboard. I advise that, as the motor’s connection is very small and fragile.

Joel Bradshaw - 03/06/21

Step 21

The battery is held in place by two thin strips of adhesive on the underside of the battery.

Step 22

Slide the tip of an opening pick under the lower edge of the battery
Slowly push the pick in halfway to loosen the adhesive.
Insert another opening pick alongside the first pick, and slowly press it in until the adhesive releases the battery.
If you are having trouble, you can apply some high-concentration (over 90%) isopropyl alcohol along the battery edges to help soften the adhesive.

Step 23

Remove the battery.
To install a replacement battery:
Remove all traces of adhesive from the battery well.
Apply stretch release adhesive strips, double-sided tape, or pre-cut adhesive strips.
Press the battery firmly in place for thirty seconds.

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

After completing this guide, calibrate your newly-installed battery.

Repair didn’t go as planned? Try some basic troubleshooting, or ask our Motorola Moto X4 Answers community for help.

Author

Arthur Shi

Member since: 03/01/18

225807 Reputation

4 comments

I want to change my motorola x4 mobile's battery. Where should I go to get the better service (means the original battery and the best service centre)?

Himadri Shekhar Nandi - 14/11/20

My battery keeps overheating and drains quickly. I did everything to close background apps to no avail. Does that mean I need new battery?

Traude Schwerzler -

Hi Traude,

It may be that your battery is damaged and is has a minor internal short. This can cause the battery to drain and overheat. Replacing the battery would be the first thing I’d try. However, it may also be a motherboard problem.

Arthur Shi -

Replaced my moto x4 battery last night as a father daughter project. It was brilliant fun, thank you.

Will West -