Macbook Pro A1706 battery replacement

The quality of third party Lithium-ion Batteries is extremely poor even when purchased from a reputable vendor such as iFixIt or OWC.

The Apple Diagnostics and macOS will tend to report issues whenever a third party item is installed so this is not unusual. macOS is only designed to work with the original Apple parts. While many third party items may work perfectly fine this is not guaranteed. It is not like Windows or Linux where the OS never knows what hardware components may be attached. In some ways macOS is a very stupid OS as it is not programmed to expect the unexpected.

The USB-C Apple laptops are very hard to troubleshoot when it comes to power related issues since these laptops have some very odd ways of behaving. If everything is fine with the original Apple battery installed and issues only appear with a third party battery installed, then I think either these batteries are all bad or perhaps there is a compatibility issue with some of them.

FYI, now that you have removed the original Apple Battery you may have trouble getting Apple to repair this laptop. There are a lot of posts on these forums about how Apple refused to service a Mac after a third party component had been installed. Even if Apple will repair the laptop, the repair may cost a lot more now since the old part may not be able to be exchanged so you may need to pay full price for the part instead of its much lower exchange price.

Also, Apple has been known to replace swollen batteries for free under a secret free repair program. Our organization has had several swollen batteries replaced for free when the laptop has been less than three years old. You should always get a repair estimate from Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider since you may sometimes be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

When it comes to Lithium-ion Batteries I will only trust an original OEM battery whenever they are available since I have seen too many issues with third party Lithium-ion Batteries. Even Apple and other OEMs have trouble sourcing good batteries. Since most people these days won't pay what it costs for a good quality part the third party market is filled with junk (sometimes cheap in price, but not always). I'll only consider a third party Lithium-ion Battery when an original OEM battery is no longer available. Plus Apple just recently announced that they will supply replacement batteries on Apple laptops for up to ten years.

Also leaving the laptop plugged in all the time doesn't necessarily cause a swollen battery. The swollen battery is caused by an internal hardware issue. Before macOS Big Sur it was a good idea to exercise the battery once in a while to help extend its life, but Big Sur now does this automatically if you leave the Battery Health Management feature enabled.

Nougueirets wrote:

Hello,

I have a 13” retina Macbook Pro with touch bar

The Macbook Pro is a mid-2017 model A1706 EMC 3163, and the battery is marked A1819.

I ordered a battery from Amazon and fitted it and basically it didn’t work, so I sent it back.

I then bought a (generic) battery off Amazon and it didn’t work, so I returned it.

I then decided to buy a battery from a firm with a decent reputation, so I got ne from iFixit (at twice the Amazon price) and basically this didn’t work either - they then sent me a replacement and this didn’t work and I’m now getting a refund.

In or out of warranty you can get a free over the counter 'Apple Service Diagnostics' test /assessment

Make an appointment for a "hardware issue"—

https://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Outside the USA

https://locate.apple.com/country

Nougueirets wrote:

One of my reasons for having a go at it myself, other than the distance to a repair shop, was that once I told them that the battery was swollen, the replacement cost jumped to 400€ because they wanted to replace the whole top cover with battery already attached.

Apple has a Battery only repair price which is much less than the replacement cost of the Top Case/Keyboard Assembly. It does not matter if the Battery is swollen. A battery repair is a battery repair. Unless the rules are different in your region in Europe you should not have been quoted the higher repair price. I hope everything works out well with this battery.

Technically the Bottom Case screws are P5 (Pentalobe).

I would anchor the battery immediately as you risk damaging the battery and causing a fire if the battery becomes punctured. Trust me on this because I've come close to damaging a loose battery I'm using to troubleshoot one of these laptops. It is so easy to become distracted and forget the battery is loose.

I only mentioned the Battery only repair price to help any other users who are in a similar situation to try to ask for another opinion and to push Apple to honor the Battery only price even for a swollen battery. Unfortunately once you have removed the original Apple battery there is a good chance that Apple will never repair the laptop for you in the future (or the repair may be more expensive if they do repair it). From what others have posted on these forums the former is the most likely outcome even though that is likely illegal in some regions just because you had an unauthorized repair unless the remaining parts were damaged by it. Unfortunately I think Apple's documentation for their service providers is a bit lacking and those authorized repair techs end up on the side of caution when they are unsure since they would be liable for any difference in the repair cost of they under quoted the repair to you.