[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] djsubterrain:
Hey guys, just had to carry out some Nexus 4 surgery so I thought I would share my experience in case it helps anyone else out...

Has the glass on the bottom of the back of your phone started peeling away and can you notice a definite bulge? (You may have noticed your phone not sitting down flush when it's on it's back and it might have a certain rocking when moving, bad signs...both) Well your battery is starting to die, you need to get rid of it!!

First things first, the default battery in an LG Nexus 4 is the LG BL-T5, a brand new one should look like this :

As you can see it should be 2100mAh. Although it says NOM, don't try eating it, I doubt it's tasty​

I was able to purchase mine from Amazon UK (Even though it was listed as 1200mAh, that was, of course, a typo), I later found an excellent site for spares (ReplaceBase) which charged less but we live and learn. The battery should cost between around £10-20.

Here's the battery from ReplaceBase UK (No, I'm not affiliated with them in any way :) )

Next thing you're gonna need is a phone toolkit, Again, I got one from Amazon UK, it isn't the greatest quality in the world but hey, it was only £6.35 and it got the job done.

The most important things you'll need in it are plastic spludgers so you don't scratch the phone up, a T5 Torx Screwdriver (The screws in the bottom of the phone which hold the case together) and a Phillips #00 Screwdriver (The screws which hold the battery connector in). Obviously magnetic screwdrivers would be best but not entirely necessary as long you are careful, gentle and have cleared out a working space.

Other things you will/may need...​

A hairdryer or a heatgun but be careful and sparing with it, low to medium setting is fine.

Some kind of compartment tray to hold your screws, they're incredibly small and won't be difficult to lose, I would recommend one of those pill dispensers you can buy, they're great for holding screws.

A sim ejector pin (A needle or needling pin should do if you haven't got it anymore).

Something nice and soft to work on, like a towel or rubber mat as you'll have the phone face down most of the time and you don't want to damage or scratch the face.

Some alcoholic lens cleaning wipes (To wipe the camera and flash after you're finished, don't want any fingerprints or smears in your photos after you're done :) I would recommend Zeiss Lens Cleaning Wipes)

A thin cardboard strip wider than the phone.

Care and Patience.

So, Here We Go...​

Remove the rear panel screws on the bottom of the phone using the T5 Torx Screwdriver and keep them safe in the holder

Eject the sim with the sim tray and keep that safe too :)

Take your smallest plastic spludger (You don't want to go straight in there with a metal one as you'll probably mess the silver surround) and start prising the back cover off, your best bet is to start either where the sim tray was or on the bottom above the usb slot, be gentle when you start if you're gonna start near either of these so you don't damage or split those parts.

When you are prising you want to be pulling the side outward as there is clips all round, not pushing the front of the phone away from the back, this won't work and if you end up trying too hard you'll snap one of the clips, so...gently..try to work the spludger into the gap between the silver surround and the plastic back, there's where the join is, try to work the spludger in this gap and then work it downwards inside and lever the black plastic outwards....GENTLY :)...You should start hearing the clips seperating, then start working your way round the phone using the same technique, it'll get much easier as you go on.

When you've undone all the clips, there are no cables attaching the back of the phone to the inside, the NFC ring has contacts on the back of the phone which meet contacts inside the phone so don't worry about removing the back.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO MOVE OR LOSE THE TWO BUTTONS FOR POWER AND VOLUME, these aren't screwed or held in place and can easily fall out and get lost (You can order replacements but you really don't want to, now do you?)

Once you get the back off, just gently push these into their recesses and make sure to put the back somewhere safe but not too far away as we're gonna be working on that again, If you feel more safe doing so, you can actually remove both buttons and keep them in your screw holder.

Now that the back is off, you will most likely see something like the following....ghastly and scary isn't it?

BULGE-TASTIC!

BULGE-ORIFIC!!

Sideboob....I mean...Side-Bulge

More Sideboo.....bulge

Here's the brand new, no bulge, replacement for comparison.

OK, Let's Get Back On Track...​

Undo both the screws holding the battery connector in above the battery using the Phillips #00 Screwdriver, carefully remove them and put them in the screwholder.

Prise the connector off using a small plastic spludger. (again, no need for metal ones, you won't meet much of a struggle with the connector and you might scratch a contact on the connector rendering the whole process defunkt)

Now it's time to remove that nasty old fat battery. (although you'll probably notice it slimming down quite quickly as you go...don't think it's fixing itself and you don't need to go any further, it's not)

There's an antenna cable taped to the battery (you can see it in the 2nd image above), try removing the sticky tape holding it down (I didn't actually replace this as you can easily tuck this cable behind the battery when you're done, just make sure you don't remove the cable from the connector above, although it's easy to put it back on if you do, you just press it down gently until you feel it click into place, for anyone who has installed a wireless card into a laptop, it's almost identical to the antenna connectors on those.

The battery has a metal surround all the way round and underneath it (You can see it easily in the 4th image above), it's glued to this underneath so you're going to need a lot of patience with this bit.

You may want to give it a blast with the hairdryer periodically to try softening the glue a bit but don't do it for too long or too close as you'll most likely shatter the front of the phone. Around 5-6inches should be ok for around 10 seconds at the most, just make sure you're moving the hairdryer the whole time.

You should be able to work the battery up by slowly using your spludger (plastic at first, metal after you get a foothold under the battery) and it will eventually come away from the rest of the phone, again, when you remove it, make sure the antenna cable isn't still attached.

Now marvel at the nasty old fat battery....BOOOOOO!!!

Here's my old battery a couple of hours later...

​

Looks like it's been on a diet doesn't it? Looks like it might be good enough to use again.....nope nope nope!!

Now throw it away or show your friends and family the nastiness.

Now, Get your new battery (Which should have come in an anti-static bag with plenty of padding/protection).

You'll want to lift the antenna cable slightly out of the way.

I would recommend putting the connector on while putting a strip of cardboard, wider then the phone, under the battery to keep it off the glue, we're not seating it yet. Just get the connector screws back and push down the connector first, you'll feel it clip into place, then put the screws back in, I would recommend leaving some play in the first one until the second one is in and then tighten them up, you don't need them so tight Superman couldn't loosen them again, it's not an elephant we're holding in there and you also don't want to keep going and end up threading the screws cos then you're really screwed....sorry.

OK, Now you can slide the cardboard away from under the battery and start placing the battery down into the compartment, you should still have glue on the back from the original battery, I had a good amount which held the new one in place, if you want, you could give it a quick, sparing, blast with the hairdryer to soften up the glue a bit before you sit the battery down. Make sure you don't trap the antenna cable underneath.

Once you're satisfied the battery is seated nicely and looks flush inside the compartment, apply some pressure on it, again, don't be standing on it or anything, this is fragile electronics we're dealing with ;)

Now tuck the antenna cable down the side of the battery and making sure the connector is still in place.

If you want, you can then put some tape down to hold it in there but I didn't bother as it seemed to be tucked in nice and tight and it won't be going anywhere.

The Dreaded Glass Back Panel​

Now, if your glass back was starting to come away when the bulging battery was in there then you'll want to make sure it is nicely attached again, this is where some pressure, the hairdryer and some patience (and gloves if your skin starts to peel off) will come in handy.

Put the back of the phone face down onto your soft surface.

Then start to use the hairdryer to heat up the inside and put pressure down all around the back, you can periodically have a look to see if it's starting to sit in the mount nicely, take as long as you feel comfortable with during this process until you feel the back panel looks like it should.

Let it all cool down and solidify for a couple of minutes.

Now You're Ready To Put The Phone Back Together...​

I would recommend using the soft surface to work with, put the back of the phone with the back down on this surface, then push the front of the phone down into it, making sure the power button and volume button haven't moved.

Putting the phone back together is basically just what you did before in reverse, you should be able to push the 2 halves of the phone back together, then work your way round making sure the seal is flush, if you notice any sort of gap and it doesn't look like the back is in place at any point around the outside, just use your smallest plastic spludger to push out the edge of the back of the phone at that point and gently push the front inside, you should hear each clip go back into place just like you did when you were removing the back.

Once you're happy all the clips are in place and you have a nice flush join then put the screws back in the bottom of the phone.

Breathe a huge sigh of relief that you didn't completely balls it up.

Most manufacturers of these batteries will likely recommend you charge the phone up for a couple of hours after with it turned off but you can watch the battery level while it's charging and see how long it takes. My new battery was actually slightly less than half charged when I first turned it on to make sure it started. Then I left it to charge fully.

What Do I Do If I Did Balls It Up And Damaged The Back Of My Phone?​

Don't worry, you can actually buy a replacement back (including the NFC coil) and not for very much, the excellent site I linked above actually sells a genuine one for only £18, you'll most likely have a similar supplier nearby in your country who will sell the same part.

The best thing about this is it won't have any of the hair type scratches on it that most of our phones will have.

You could even decide to do this instead of using your original back but of course, the process is going to be the same, although, as you'll notice it doesn't seem to include the buttons, that's why you really need to be careful with these.

Well that's it, if you want to see how my phone was after I replaced the battery (to be honest, the back of my phone was bulging in the bottom third, obviously, where the battery was but the glass hadn't separated a huge amount from the case but enough to be alarming/annoying), have a look below (Sorry for the bad quality but they were quick pics using another Nexus 4 from the household, can't fix the crappy camera :p ) :

Here's the bottom, you can see the speaker slot and the little feet.​

So that's it, sorry for the "Great Wall of Text", I would have done a video guide but, to be honest, this was the first one I'd done and I wanted to concentrate on it, just wanted to get some pics of the before/after too though. If you have any questions or not too harsh comments, let me know :)

More Help/Guidance​

iFixit's Nexus 4 teardown, so you can see what you should expect inside the phone, they'll also give you lots of info about the cabling, screws, tools, etc, I read through this page before ordering all the gear and before starting, I'd recommend you do the same.

The battery and rear panel I would recommend ordering again, sadly, this is in the UK but you should be able to find somewhere else closer who will stock these:

Battery

Rear Panel (Again, remember you'll need to retain your original power and volume button so be careful with these.

A couple of video guides on YouTube:

Phandroid

NewLife2OldStuff

Anthony McLean (Although I wouldn't use your nails to go round the phone, use the proper tools)

Could a Mod move this to the Help and Troubleshooting forum please.

If the Mods deem this to be helpful it might be an idea to pin it too ( Not trying to be pushy ;) )

MOD EDIT: MOVED :highfive:​