Motorola Moto G5 Plus Display Assembly Replacement

Written By: Taylor Dixon

Comments: 30

Motorola Moto G5 Plus Display Assembly Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

30 minutes - 1 hour

Introduction

This guide will walk you through the process of removing or replacing the display assembly of a Motorola Moto G5 Plus.

This guide is for replacing a complete display assembly, which includes the home button. Your replacement part should look like this. If you purchased a bare display, you must complete additional disassembly steps, which are not covered by this guide.

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.

Tools

Parts

Step 1

Be sure to power off your phone before you begin.
Use a SIM eject bit, SIM eject tool, or paper clip to remove the SIM card from your phone.

Step 2

Prepare an iOpener and heat the front of the phone along its left edge for about two minutes, or until it's slightly too hot to touch. This will help soften the adhesive securing the display.
You may need to reheat and reapply the iOpener several times to get the phone warm enough to cut the adhesive. 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.

Heat not only along the phone’s left edge, right?

Rémi Boissonnas - 21/02/20

I used two suction cups on the screen. Just above the finger print reader and the other near the top. Then used my heatgun set at 390 degrees. Low speed and had the wide, flat blade attachment so the heat spread to a narrow/wide area. Heated the left edge from corner to corner, then pulled up on the suction cups until I could work in a plastic triangle guitar-like-pic under the screen. Continued to heat and add another pick around the screen . Do not rush and take your time. Got the screen off and didn’t damage the adhesive too bad. Was able to reuse it. Once reassembled, I heated the screen around the edge and rubbed with a plastic tool to make sure the adhesive was working. So far so good with the adhesive. Good Luck!

strtrekbuf -

Step 3

In the following steps you will be cutting through the adhesive around the edge of the display assembly.
Refer to the second and third images and familiarize yourself with the width of the adhesive around edges of the display.
If you plan to re-use the display assembly, be particularly careful as you cut the adhesive on the sides of the phone. Don't insert your tool more than 2 mm into the phone, and angle it down (away from the display assembly) as much as possible.

2mm ONLY on the SIDES of the display. The top can have adhesive as far as 10mm from the edge, and at the bottom as much as 12mm. And there’s no way to cut this adhesive with the tools at 45 degrees. Once the left side is open, carefully insert the tool a little further at a time on the top and bottom, whilst attempting to keep a little pull force on the suction cup. Hard to do, and almost inevitably the on-off button will be hit at some point unless you’re really careful. The adhesive pieces are quite tough, and I used a tiny scissors to cut some of the adhesive “ropes” when the case was far enough open. A highly detailed photo of the adhesive locations top and bottom (and on both parts) would help here. This is likely the most difficult step (well, don’t know for certain, ‘cause I haven’t got further yet…), and warrants better photos and explanation IMO.

max barcalounger -

Step 4

Apply a suction cup to the display, near the middle of the left edge.
Pull the suction cup with firm, constant pressure to create a slight gap between the display panel and the rear case.
If the screen is cracked, the suction cup may not stick. In that case, try lifting with strong tape, or superglue the suction cup in place and allow it to cure so you can proceed.
If the display doesn't separate even with significant force, apply more heat to further soften the adhesive and try again. The adhesive cools quickly, so you may need to heat it repeatedly.

Step 5

Slide the tool along the left edge of the phone, cutting through the adhesive securing the display.
As you move on to cutting the adhesive around the rest of the display, it may help to leave an opening pick in place here and grab another for the following steps.

Step 6

Slide the opening pick down and cut the adhesive around the bottom of the display.
If the adhesive is too tough to cut, continue to heat it until it softens enough to cut fairly easily. Excessive prying or force used here could permanently damage the display or other components.
Be careful as you slide your pick around the top and bottom edges of the display. The display cables, fingerprint sensor, and fingerprint sensor cable are all housed fairly close to the edge of the display and can easily be damaged. Refer to this image to see the exact location of the cables.

Step 7

Continue cutting through the adhesive on the top and right sides of the phone.
The proximity sensor, earpiece speaker, and front-facing camera are all located along the top edge of the phone, but are housed beneath the display unit. You shouldn't come into contact with any of them as you insert your pick to cut the adhesive.

Pues se me fastidia la pantalla al hacer esto

Carolina Folgado - 25/05/21

This is a great guide except for one thing. My screen works fine but it is separating from the phone on both sides. I need to remove it just enough to clean up the old adhesive and reattach. The instructions on repeating the steps in reverse order to replace the screen doesn't help with getting the regluing right, what kind of glue or double sided tape to use, etc …

Gretchen Zimmermann -

Step 8

Once all the adhesive is cut, carefully lift open the display from the left edge.
Don't fully remove the display yet. There are still cables connecting the display assembly that can rip easily.
Prop the display unit at a 90 degree angle against a box to prevent the display and fingerprint cables from bending or tearing.

it should be pointed out that the fingerprint cable is easy to tear as it lays next to a sharp angle of the display unit.

Vincenzo -

Step 9

Remove the yellow sticker covering two of the black Phillips screws below the earpiece.

Attention must be paid not to lose the small rubber gasket around the proximity sensor - I found it best to collect it with all the screws of the midframe and reinstall it at the end during re-assembly.

Fabrizio Sassi - 04/04/21

Step 10

Remove the following Phillips screws from the midframe:
Sixteen 3.8 mm black screws
Three 2.4 mm silver screws

Esa placa se levanta por el otro lado, por donde estan los botones de volumen por ahi se puede levantar de una mejor manera.

Hector Juarez - 15/01/19

Step 11

Insert the flat end of a spudger between the midframe and the left edge of the phone and carefully pry to release the two clips holding the midframe in place.

Step 12

Lift the midframe up and away from the phone.

If replacing the battery, jump to that section at this step.

[deleted] - 14/10/18

Step 13

Use the point of a spudger to disconnect the larger of the two display cable connectors.

Step 14

Disconnect the smaller display cable connector.
This cable houses a display controller chip encased in yellow tape. You do not need to remove the yellow tape. The chip is lightly adhered to the motherboard, but should come up with minimal effort.
Gently continue lifting the cable to break the adhesive seal and pull the cable away from the motherboard.

Step 15

At the opposite end of the phone, disconnect the fingerprint sensor cable.
The fingerprint sensor cable is taped to a shield above it. As you lift the cable, lift the tape up with it. You can also remove the tape before disconnecting the cable.

Step 16

Remove the display assembly from the phone.
Before you reinstall the display assembly, thoroughly remove any remaining adhesive and glass from the frame of the device with isopropyl alcohol.
Be sure to turn on your phone and test your repair before installing new adhesive and sealing the display assembly.
If your replacement display doesn't have touch functionality and you're sure that it has been installed correctly, back up your data and perform a factory reset.

If your digitizer appears to be "dead", power down the phone (which you can't because the digitizer is dead) and disconnect the battery connector by prying the connector up out of its socket (with something NONE conductive like your spudge tool) for few seconds. (It does not "slide" out, but pries straight up.) This will FORCE a cold boot and initialize the digitizer WITHOUT a factory reset, preserving all setups and all your files. :-)

Glenn Hagfors -

Conclusion

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

Compare your new replacement part to the original part. You may need to transfer remaining components or remove adhesive backings from the new part before installing.

Take your e-waste to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler.

Repair didn’t go as planned? Check out our Answers community for troubleshooting help.

Author

Taylor Dixon

Member since: 26/06/18

63116 Reputation

20 comments

Thank you for the explainations. I followed the whole tutorial and I manage to fix the phone with no surprise.

Sebastien Lenoir - 10/02/18

Thank you. Instructions are great.

After replacing the screen, touch is offset by 125 pixels on Y axis (meaning that first registration from the top edge is at 125 px). Is there a way to get the phone to recalibrate?

Thanks

Jens Maigaard - 20/08/18

Thanks. These tips, plus the Moto G5 LCD guide solved my problem. The replacement I purchased was only for the LCD (needed to heat and remove the glass after disassembling the whole phone). Again, thanks.

Jeffo Moreira - 22/09/18

does the silver plastic on back of digitizer need to be removed in order for the screen to light up on the display??

anatheachavez - 09/02/19

I assume there are two pieces to the screen - the glass front/digitizer/touchscreen and the LCD display itself. Is this correct? On mine I believe only the glass/digitizer is cracked since the phone works fine and has only a minor crack. This tutorial doesn’t show how to separate them. Is my understanding correct? I also need to buy the correct part and it is a bit confusing.

Ken Woolfe - 22/07/19

Hey Ken! You are correct, there are technically two parts to the screen—the LCD/digitizer, and the glass. That said, they are glued together and extremely hard to separate! Without special tools, your likelihood of successfully replacing the glass without breaking the LCD is low. That’s why this guide just shows the removal and replacement of the whole screen assembly. If you’d like to buy the whole screen assembly (like the one in the guide) then you can do so here! If you’d prefer to just get the glass and do that repair, you might be able to find the part on another site, but unfortunately we don’t have a guide for that.

Taylor Dixon - 22/07/19

I just followed the guide with a replacement screen from ifixit and sadly it is not touch responsive though the picture is fine. I've tried wiping the cache and erasing all data from the bootloader with no success. Touch is still working with the original screen. Has anyone else had this problem?

Adam Bridge - 20/10/19

Adam, it sounds like we may have shipped you a bad screen! I’m really sorry it’s not working for you. I suggest you get in contact with our customer support team and see if they can get you a replacement for your replacement. Just make sure you tell them that the touch on the original screen is still working!

Taylor Dixon - 21/10/19

Yes, hopefully is just a bad screen as that would be easy enough to resolve. Waiting to hear back from support now.

Adam Bridge - 21/10/19

Alright! After a lot of googling and persistence I got it working. With the new screen connected I did a full factory reset from the bootloader, turned the phone off, disconnected the battery for ~ 30 seconds, reconnected it, switched on and hey presto, good as new :-)

Adam Bridge - 27/10/19

That is crazy!! Excellent detective work and persistence. Thanks for keeping us updated, enjoy your new screen! :)

Taylor Dixon - 29/10/19

Had similar thing to me and after restarting phone multiple times through an org cable (it can probably also be done by holding down power button) and touch functionality was restored

shawn k - 31/10/19

This procedure was also required in my case. Also, I would recommend adding a step or note about applying the adhesive before plugging in the new screen. Otherwise, the directions read as though you should plug in the new screen first. This became a problem in my case because I didn’t realize that unplugging the screen to apply the adhesive would cause the screen to loose touch functionality. I was able to restore it using the battery method outlined here, but did have to go through the RMA process to get another adhesive strip to complete the repair.

Clay Olney -

After replacing my screen using the ifixit kit, there was no touch capability. I tried several things, but the only thing that worked was a factory reset. Follow the directions for external reset on this page, using recovery mode.

https://support.motorola.com/in/en/solut...

Thomas Bronson - 09/12/19

That’s great to know, Thomas! Thank you. It seems like you aren’t the only one who has come across this problem—I’ll add a note about this in the final step.

Taylor Dixon - 09/12/19

Hi,

I recently got the ifix it screen repir kit, and everything went fine, until I tried to type on the phone with the new screen. Like the folks above, I had an issue with the touch functionality. However, though I reset the phone, and wiped my data, the touch screen still won’t respond.

Extremely dissapointed. Please advise.

Mishael Hibshoosh - 22/04/20

Great instructions with clear, precise photos. I found this very helpful with only one observation to add: For me, the most difficult part of this repair was affixing the new adhesive. I received an adhesive kit that comes on a peel-away template. It would have helped me, and I imagine others, if there was some demonstration of how to go about installing the new adhesive from the template on which it comes. Otherwise a great tutorial. Thanks, Mark

Mark DiRollo - 27/06/20

I was nervous about doing this. Your instructions were excellent and easy to follow the photo’s were very good they made doing the screen replacement pleasant. Thank you very much for helping with your knowledge of the subject.

darryldykes43 - 15/11/20

Just wanted to add that Adam Bridge’s solution is what worked for me. I also forgot to remove the little blue adhesive strips from the back of the display cables the first time, which may have kept the touchscreen from working initially.

Gavin L - 07/01/21

re : Notification Diffuser

There is a little part that dropped out during this procedure, but not covered here.

It’s the Notification Diffuser, a little semi-translucent piece of whitish rubber about 3mm sqr.

It goes on the underside of the midframe (not in any photo here), at the top of the phone, just to the left of that centimeter wide well or hole in the motherboard, as you’re looking at the motherboard with the phone open.

It’s right near the farthest left brass “dot” in Figure 13’s photo.

It covers the Notification light.

There is mention of it on this youtube :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdenXVWz... (Not in English but you’ll here a word that sounds like “Diffuser” as he points it out.

Kent - 01/02/21