Pixel 3a earphone speaker replaced, not working.

[Resolved]. I decided to go in again and see if anything was visibly wrong, like a contact came off during reassembly or whatever. I also intended to remove the motherboard and be sure everything looked good under it, and clean, especially the 3 gold contacts (noticed in the teardown on iFixit) which were on the same plastic where the earpiece speaker’s 2 gold contacts were. I also sourced another earpiece speaker as I wasn’t going to go through this 2nd excursion and not be prepeared.

It was much easier to go through the pre-cut and shaped Display Adhesive, as expected. Everything looked good, everything attached, no corrosion under the motherboard or 3 contacts; so, I replaced the speaker… what else was there to do?! I put it all back together, but didn’t glue down the screen. Sadly it didn’t work. I put it in my Spigen case (which actually kind of wraps around the edges and would help the screen stay in place) so I could use it for the rest of the day and try the fix again later.

I planned to go in, check the depth of the earpiece speaker in it’s spot (there’s a recess it sits in), see what voltage the 2 gold contacts had, and was considering shimming the speaker with the little blue plastic that protects it when shipped in the package. I was suspicious of that connection. Well… I picked up the phone and was looking at it and noticed a gap in the midframe (it snaps into the back) on the speaker end, where it apparently didn’t lock on well when snapped together the 1st time. I pressed that closed, heard a nice click and tested again… lo and behold it worked.

In summary, the original speaker was damaged by the water, the iFixit replacement was probaly good (I had to use needle nose pliers to remove then and they were destroyed). I don’t know why it worked the 2nd time, there was no gap in the base to midframe after my 1st fix attempt, but it did work!

Incidentally, while inside the phone I noticed all 3 (that I saw) water indicators were pink. So this is my testament to the build of this phone and it’s apparent water resistance (in my case, the phone went in the washing machine (soapy water) for 5 - 10 seconds before I realized what had happened)), EVERYTHING now works, and hopefully will continue so.