Air drank cup of tea. Now it doesn't charge with it's own charger and 2 keys got broken.

Question

Hey guys.
My wife spilled a cup of tea with sugar on her Air. Now it doesn't charge with it's own charger (14.5V, 3.1A) but it does with macbook pro's charger (18.5V, 4.6A). This is weird. Our local "certified" reseller (we don't have Apple Store in out country) suggested to avoid fixing it, since they could not identify the problem. I think they're lame but I'm ok with uncomfy charging. But there's still 2 keys not workng. The comma and period keys. These are quite important and used very frequently. Resseler suggested to replace keboard, but €250 is a bit pricey.
So what I was thinking — to get them fixed by myself. This is apparently circute closing, which in theory is easy to fix. I have experience disassembling our mid 2011 Air. Not the keyboard, but I did clean the logic board and most of other compartments.
What do you think? Does it work disasembling the front cover from the keyboard and fix it? Are they any downfalls assembling it back?
Thanks.
Alex.

Answer 1

The problem here is going to be twofold - getting the needed part(s) and making sure the MacBook Air will work long term after any repair you do.
Apple does not sell repair parts to consumers, so you will need to look into a used parts market. Be sure you get the same exact model.
One big problem is that the MBA has a soft-cell battery.  If someone that doesn't know what they're doing punctures, squeezes, flexes, or even looks at the battery the wrong way, it could literally blow up in their face.
You may end up with a totally non-functional MBA even after spending money on the parts and have nothing to show for your efforts.
If you can, at least you should be able to use the computer as it is now with an external keyboard. That might be a better solution.
Best of luck.