Swollen Battery / Unresponsive Trackpad Click

Hi,

I think you need to repair trackpad, probably because of battery swell, trackpad flat cable or trackpad itself was damaged.

Since you pulled the battery out yourself, Apple likely won’t help. But it might be possible to fix it with a salvage part.

That wasn’t really my point. Typically if they notice that there’s an aftermarket battery installed, they’ll refuse any future service by Apple or an AASP. I don’t necessarily agree with that policy, but that’s been my understanding of how Apple operates its repair service.

In regards to your removed posts, check the link in the email you received to review the Terms of Use for these forums since the post either violated the terms or maybe just pushed its limits. The moderators have been really aggressive in removing posts recently where the posts would have been "acceptable" a few weeks ago.

I really believe in technical and knowledgeable users being able to repair their own equipment, but you should always research official options first just in case. I'm sorry for your current predicament, and I do understand your frustration. Unfortunately Apple & Apple parts are expensive. Maybe you can find a laptop with a defective display where you can just swap parts to get one working system. You do need to be careful both in the repair and also in purchasing from a reputable source since you could damage the working parts in your laptop. I would strongly advise you to have good verified working backups before doing anything either way. I'm unable to provide links to the third party repair guides due to the aggressive moderation recently as the content is deemed too dangerous for people.

Certainly I feel discussion of self repair of devices where Apple has discontinued service should be reasonable. There are forums here for devices that are considered obsolete with absolutely no repair by Apple, and I’ve seen posts disappear into the ether.

Since there’s been DIY repair, I’m thinking Apple probably will refuse to work on it.

FYI, you might have gotten a free repair if you would have first checked with Apple since there is a battery recall for this model.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/15-inch-macbook-pro-battery-recall

Also Apple will replace a swollen battery for free if the laptop is less than three years from date of first sale.

FYI, for laptops with glued in batteries, Apple has two different part prices for the Top Case Assembly which includes the Keyboard, Trackpad, and Battery on this model. The price for this part is expensive, but if you were replacing it for a battery failure, the part price would be about half to keep a battery replacement cost close to what a removable battery would cost. Since you no longer have an Apple original battery and now you only have a Trackpad failure, the part price is the more expensive one.

Sorry for the bad news.

y_p_w wrote:

That wasn’t really my point. Typically if they notice that there’s an aftermarket battery installed, they’ll refuse any future service by Apple or an AASP. I don’t necessarily agree with that policy, but that’s been my understanding of how Apple operates its repair service.

You may be correct at least for some regions. Apple has three price points for the Top Case Assembly for the Retina laptops. Two of the price points are available if the defective core qualifies for return to Apple (one for just the battery cost and the other higher price for any other issue) and the third price point is the outright purchase of the Top Case Assembly. In this case either the higher core exchange price or the outright purchase of the Top Case Assembly would be the only possible options. My guess is Apple quoted the OP the full stock part price for the repair which would not be surprising due to a third party battery being installed. Ultimately it is Apple's decision.