How to Replace the AUX Jack on Beats EP Headphones
The Beats EP headphones are the companies' only headphone offering that has an attached cable. It also turns out that the 3.5mm headphone jack that is on said cable breaks off easily or becomes faulty all too frequently. This guide shows you how to replace that jack with a higher quality aftermarket one.
If you would prefer to read a written repair guide, check that out below. Or if the tool cost seems prohibitive for a one time repair and you would prefer that we complete this repair for you, check out our Repair Catalog to see if we offer repair services for this device.
Are you a business? We offer wholesale discounts on our repair services if you are sending numerous units in for repair or want to send us continuing batches of devices for repair on a regular basis. Contact our support team for more info Info@JoesGE.com (This email is only for wholesale inquiries, please contact Support@JoesGE.com for other inquiries).
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Repair Difficulty: Difficult
Time to complete: 1-2 hours. Give yourself time to go slow and steady :)
The tools and parts that you will need for this repair:
- A New AUX Jack
- A soldering iron (around 15 watts is good for small electronics and would be cheaper than purchasing a temperature variable unit).
- Solder Flux (To ensure clean solder joints)
- Solder (To apply to the end of the wires that you cut)
- Heat Gun (A hairdryer can also do the trick)
- Scissors or razor blade (to cut the old jack off and remove the rubber insulation from the main wire)
- Precision Tweezers
- T8000 Glue. We use 2P10 glue from Fast Cap in our video and the pictures but T8000 will do the same job.
- Blue Loctite (Only used for putting on the threads of the black screw-on cap for the new aux jack. If you don't want to put it on the threads, you don't need to)
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1. Remove the old jack
Regardless of if your jack has broken off or has been ripped off of its cord, you will need to cut the cable to give yourself a clean set of wires to work with. You can cut the cable just above the jack with a pair of scissors or a razor blade.
2. Ready the wire
Now you will need to carefully strip the rubber insulation off of the main wire. You can do this by creating light incisions on either side of the flat wire about 3/4 of an inch up from the end of the wire with your razor blade or scissors. Then, just pull the main rubber insulation off of the smaller wires that it houses.
Once you have removed the insulation, splay out the wires so that you can see them clearly and twist all of the small copper-colored wires into one wire.
There are also some individual strands of plastic insulation present. You do not need them, so you can cut them off. You don't need to entirely remove them, just cut them short like in the picture below.
Now, slip the black housing part of your New AUX Jack onto the main wire.
Next, cut the clear plastic tubing in half that came with your New AUX Jack and slide that onto the wire so that it would fit inside the cover for the New AUX Jack that you are installing.
3. Solder the connections
Now its time to prepare those small wires for being attached to the terminals on your New AUX Jack. Start by applying a small amount of Solder flux to each wire.
Clean your soldering iron tip and apply some fresh solder to it. Then, transfer that solder to the small wires one at a time. This process is called "Tinning". ***Make sure that you do not hold your soldering iron on the wires for more than a couple of seconds at a time as these wires are very thin and can melt if you leave the iron on them for too long.
Once you are finished tinning the wires, it is time to tin the contact points on the AUX jack. There are four of them, 3 on the side and one on the back that sticks out. First, apply a small amount of flux, then apply a small amount of solder.
Once You have finished tinning the wires and contact points, solder the wires individually to the contacts of the New AUX Jack. It can help to use your Precision Tweezers to hold the small wires in place rather than your fingers. To make sure that the color-coded wiring diagram below is not confusing, start by soldering the copper wire that you twisted into a single wire to the contact that would be closest to the device when the jack is plugged in, then the red wire, the green wire, and finishing with the red and green wire being soldered to the pole that sticks off of the back of the jack. ***Make sure that you do not hold your soldering iron on the wires for more than a couple of seconds at a time as these wires are very thin and can melt if you leave the iron on them for too long.
4. Test the headphones
At this point, the headphones should be fully functioning, including the up/down volume controls and the play/pause button so make sure to test them on your phone to ensure that everything works before you seal them up.
5. Reassembly
Using your heat gun or hairdryer, heat up the clear plastic shrink tubing while it is placed over the terminals on the back of your new AUX jack until it shrinks tightly around the wires. ***We would recommend holding the jack with tweezers during this part of the repair as the metal will get quite hot and can burn you if you hold it.
At this point, if you have Loctite, apply a small amount to the threads of the jack.
Now screw on the cover for the back of the jack.
Lastly, you will want to apply some B7000 Glue inside the hole at the back of the new jack where the main wire is sticking out. This will help seal off the terminals from moisture and help prevent the wire from being worn down as it is moved around.
