What's the risk with oxidized metal parts in iphone audio input ?

[msdmn]

Hello,

I have the possibility to buy an iphone 4 from a friend.
I've been playing around with it this afternoon and i noticed that the metal parts inside the audio input are greenish. (attached image)

Is it bad ?
What are the risks ?

Thanks

 

[msdmn]

Any ideas ?

 

[Gav2k]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

That's not normal tbh

 

[Zackmd1]

Hello,

I have the possibility to buy an iphone 4 from a friend.
I've been playing around with it this afternoon and i noticed that the metal parts inside the audio input are greenish. (attached image)

Is it bad ?
What are the risks ?

Thanks

That to me screams that this iPhone has water damage. The metal wouldnt normally do that in normal conditions... Those parts would have haft to be exposed to a fairly good amount of water for a fairly good about of time for them to oxidize like that.

 

[msdmn]

Ok

The phone is working properly so far, the sound is clean with or without earphones.

What do you think may go wrong ?

Thanks for your replies

 

[mcdj]

Is this your friend?

 

[msdmn]

Yup (why ?)

 

[PNutts]

The phone is working properly so far, the sound is clean with or without earphones.

What do you think may go wrong ?

There's a risk of whatever's happening continuing and affect the signal to the earbuds. I would be more concerned about what's happening in the other direction. iPhones are not sealed so whatever was in the jack is also probably in the phone.

I also notice there is a significant deformation in the metal band (antenna). It's clear this phone has not been taken care of very well. However, life happens and if you believe the price is fair for a damaged phone that's between you and your friend. Personally, I wouldn't touch this one but everyone's situation is different. Be prepared for the awkward moment between you and your friend when the phone stops working. Will you expect a refund?

If you are able to, you could get a Genius appointment and see if they would run their diagnostics on it to see if all the components are OK. Without treatment that could damage the phone further the corrosion may not stop.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3302