Motorola Moto X4 Screen Replacement

Written By: Arthur Shi

Comments: 15

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

30 minutes - 1 hour

Introduction

Follow this guide to remove a cracked or broken screen for the Moto X4.

As part of the procedure, you will have to transfer the fingerprint sensor from your broken screen to the replacement part.

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

Apply a heated iOpener to the fingerprint sensor for one minute to soften the adhesive gasket.

Step 14

Slide the point of a spudger under the fingerprint sensor cable and gently pry to loosen the cable from the screen.

Step 15

Use an opening tool to pry up and loosen the fingerprint sensor from the screen.

Step 16

Remove the fingerprint sensor.
To reattach the fingerprint sensor, use a precut gasket, or apply some thin strips of Tesa adhesive to the perimeter of the sensor.

Step 17

If your replacement screen did not come with an earpiece speaker grille, you will have to transfer it from your original screen.
The earpiece speaker grille consists of two small mesh pieces. Be careful not to lose them as you transfer them over.
Use the flat edge of a spudger to push the grille from the front side of the screen to loosen it from its recess.
Remove the grille.
Use some thin strips of Tesa tape to affix the grille to the replacement screen.

Step 18

If your replacement part did not come with a lower microphone gasket, use tweezers to carefully peel it from your old screen and transfer it to your replacement part.
Compare your new replacement screen to the original part. You may need to transfer remaining components or remove adhesive backings from the new part before installing.

Conclusion

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

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

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

218115 Reputation

8 comments

This guide really only covers screen removal, and should detail replacing the screen as advertised. Here are a few more steps that should be added:

1. Transferring old hardware to the new screen (seals, filters, fingerprint sensor, & the grey carbon mat.

2. Cleaning up old adhesive.

3. Applying new adhesive, whether it’s the one-piece that ifixit carries (recommended), or Tesa tape.

4. Installing the new display assembly

Andrew Parker - 06/02/20

Is it possible to remove and replace only the glass? Can I do that without removing the whole LCD screen and avoid disconnecting/reconnecting wires?

Drew S - 14/03/20

Hi Drew,

I haven’t tried, but I think it is possible to do a glass-only repair for this LCD screen, as long as you have the necessary tools and bonding adhesives. You would still have to deal with the fingerprint sensor, which is sealed onto the glass.

Arthur Shi - 16/03/20

I noticed the fingerprint sensor not being quite as low on the right edge after this. Also, I think it has a bit of “give” now when I press on it with a thumbnail. If the tips of my thumbs weren't so dry right now I might not have noticed, though.

Chris Young - 11/05/20

Hey Chris,

Did you add adhesive to the fingerprint sensor, if you didn't add some adhesive it may have some play, as most things need to be glued in place, and you could have forgotten to add some new adhesive.

Dominik Rodriguez -

I just finished following your guide and mostly satisfied. Somehow my fingerprint sensor doesn’t work but <shrugs> If I loose that convenience for a time, then I still payed less and got experience. Now, for the constructive criticism. YOU NEED a re-assembly guide. We’re not all at the level you guys are and it took a lot more work for me to put things back together as I had to flip things around and watch a few other videos to see steps I missed. You need a guide because you some of the items you’re supposed to use are not mentioned here because they’re not used until you re-assemble it. Please add it to this guide (for future people) unless you’re going to stop selling this kit, then just add it to the other kits. It would be a great help.

Ben - 26/10/20

Agree completely with this statement and others above. Please do re-assembly. It’s a few more photos and it makes sure you did not miss anything as this user said. At this point, in my replacement, I do not know where to start with the adhesive, etc.

Andrea - 10/11/20

What is the 'carbon mat'?? Is it the black backing with 15 holes that was on the inside of original screen? I'll transfer this and hope that's right. And YES . . . We definitely need ReInstall directions. I would really like to know exactly how to use the pre cut adhesive, or the Tesa tape, if needed... which I think I will. I lost the speaker screen and had to pull one from another phone. But as for other holes... I would feel much better k king I'm doing it right. It really dies no good to perfectly remove the old screen. . . If you screw up installing the new one. All in all - I'm so very Thankful this site dies exist and you guts are excellent. There's still room to grow to reach perfection ( wink**) but helping to keep the power in our hands, is priceless. I love learning and always like to know what I'm using, how it works, and how to fix it. The automotive world is pushing us further away each year. Thank you and good luck everyone.

Kristabell -