Spilled Coke on Unibody MBP...self-clean or apple repair

So a friend of mine spilled coke on the left side of my unibody mbp with built-in battery. It still works now after 4 days but the q,w,a,shift, capslock, tab,`,1,2,3,4,esc, and all f-keys are very sticky. The battery indicator button also doesn't work. Should I fork over the $1300 to get my entire laptop fixed by apple for $1300 (and have my applecare warranty back in effect) or try to clean it myself with distilled water and a toothbrush? This computer is 11 months old. Thank you!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I'll be paying 50% of the repair cost.

 

if there is ever a high chance of accidental damage.. I always tell people to buy some insurance to cover that... sucks otherwise.

I'd definitely strip the thing completely apart and clean it out before paying $1300... but I don't know how much experience you have doing that type of stuff.

 

Which size MBP is it? If it's a 13", $1300 is incredibly steep given the price of a brand new one. Personally, I would replace the keyboard ($40-50 on ebay it seems) and maybe try to take a look at the battery button but likely ignore it if its dead. You could probably get a replacement button/batt light assembly off ebay as well. All in you'd be out a few hundred max but Apple's repair rate just sounds ridiculous unless they're just handing you a new one.

 

I've had a laptop completely doused in coffee loaded in sugar, which I completely taken apart, washed down with water to remove all sticky traces, and reassembled......only to go on working for another 3 years.

$1300 is incredibly steep, unless you are not inclined enough to pull apart a laptop and reassemble it. Some people can justify that cost, I personally couldn't even justify $100 to clean it since I can do it myself.

 

It's a 15" MBP with 512mb NVIDIA graphics so it'll normally run $2100 (it's the mid 2009 model)

The computer works absolutely fine. I just don't want to have problems down the rode before of the coke spill It's been 4 days so far. :/

Also, another problem is that I don't know how to remove the F-keys and the shift keys and whether I should fix this myself and cancel my 3 year applecare since it's going to be void with the water damage.

 

Where do you live?

 

I'm in South Bend, IN right now The only places here that are authorized apple are Pixelcreek (they said they'll just send it to apple) and Notre Dame (they'll also just send it to apple)

 

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Late 2008 and Early 2009 Teardown - Page 4 - iFixit

56 screws hold the keyboard to the top half of the case. Seems a bit ridiculous but certainly doable if you have a decent set of small screwdrivers and containers to keep screws sorted. Take your time and you can probably do it in under 2hrs.

Even if by some horrible fluke where you say spill another coke inside the computer while you're fixing it, you'll probably get enough selling the parts on Ebay to come in less out of pocket toward a new 15" MBP than paying Apple $1,300 to fix your current one.

 

At the moment i've been able to pop the keys off and fix them but i'm not sure how the mechanism works for special keys ;(

 

I spilled an entire bottle of beer into my macbook about the second week after I got it. The first thing I did which probably saved the whole thing was to rip out the battery so that I didn't cause a short. I had a few buttons that stuck but after about a week of use the stickiness had worn off them. best of luck.

 

Luckily, through trial and error, I was able to remove the stickiness from all the keys. The ones I cleaned sound a bit different for some reason but as long as I can type at full speed, I can't really ask for anything more. I'll try to open up the lappy and clean the insides. I'm guessing the best thing to do is not bring it in for repairs until my entire computer dies due to corrosion?

Also, should I cancel Applecare at this point? Thanks!

 

Unless you're going to totally clean the inside, it'd probably be worth just canceling your Applecare and taking the pro-rated refund. Like you said, if you did ever send it back in the future they would likely just void the fix due to the spill evidence.

Also, I'm not sure exactly where they are located, but the 2 liquid spill sensors are under the keyboard and trackpad which you might have already tripped.

 

If your friend spilled the coke on your laptop, should not that friend pay 100% of the cost to repair or replace the laptop ?? This of course is just my opinion. God Bless

 

can you just remove a MBP keyboard, rinse it under water and let it air dry? works for other brands of laptop keyboards. done it before myself.

 

Yeah we definitely won't replace the Macbook Pro's Keyboard or the other affected parts because the APP doesn't cover Accidental Damage as everyone already knows. Sorry to hear about it man you can try calling into Apple Care and talk to HR and see what they can do but in all honesty I think it would be cheaper to buy the parts yourself.. However the only problem with that is say if you replace the parts and everything works.. But then something goes wrong with the keyboard and you call in. The agent will make you put in the original keyboard and in attempts to troubleshoot the problem so be careful when replacing parts. Just a heads up.