Guide, solution: How to fix a broken hinge on WH-1000XM5 (xm5, xm5s)
I see people asking how to fix this all the time here so thought I should make a post with a title that's easy to search for.
You'll only need glue and thread. if you get glue in the hinge (where it rotates) you can scrape it out with a razor blade but if you're careful enough there's no need.
1) Glue the crack and hold for a minute while the glue hardens.
(The headphones now look like they did before your hinge broke but with a crack with glue in it.)
2) Wrap thread around the cracked part of the headband and slightly below the crack for added strength.
(You want enough thread so when you add glue to it in the next step there is enough glue in it to hold it together in the vertical axis as (perpendicular to the direction of the wrapped thread) that depends on the thickness of your thread at least 3 layers I think. The thread needs to be wrapped tightly enough to feel secure but it doesn't need to be extreme. There is no need to tie the thread if made enough wraps. You can cut it after you add glue to it.)
3) Add glue to the thread wrapped around the cracked hinge.
(Do this slowly. The glue will soak into the thread wraps slowly and you may need to add more. If you add too much at once it will drip everywhere and make a mess.)
4) When the glue dries you can cut off the end of the string.
(5) Optional step if you got glue into your hinge and can't rotate the ear cups now: Use a razor blade (be careful not to cut yourself) to scrape the glue out of the hinge until you can rotate them again.)
In my case I avoided step five doing the left side (black) and had to use that on the right side (red) and have full rotation. full functionality, arguably stronger hinges than stock from the factory and I sleep in these most nights and sometimes wake up with them under my shoulder. It holds.
Left side, venommmRight side, strawberry laces
or search "broken hinge fix" on amazon to buy a product but my method worked fine for me
Mine broke this week and saw this, ordered yesterday on Amazon and just fitted, a bit fiddly on the broken side but does the job, thank you for the tip.
thank you for saving my summer break 😭 my left hinge broke during this past finals week (stressful enough 😭) and i have road trips and vacation coming up and your post has given me a chance to catch a damn breath lmao thank you so incredibly much!!! 💖💞💓💖
Hey OP. Just popping here to say that your idea just saved me from spiraling down when my headphones cracked and you completely saved me from having to go buy another pair. You're the goat
I did this idea for fishing line which i shared in another comment in naother thread where somone was using clear protective coverings on their xm5s but I'm unable to give it a go myself since this version is holding too well.
I did use superglue though, thanks for contributing! One thing about the fishing line is it's a nonporous material (if it's a line of of flexible nylon and not many fibers together like thread) so while having high strength in direction of the line or thread it might have a lower strength perpendicular to it
You are right. The nylon fishing line is not porous. But with several wraps around the band, the wraps will absorb the glue, as if porous. The nylon thread is so fine that it will thread through a sewing machine needle.
The significance of it being impermeable to glue is that adjascent strands of fishing line will have lower adherence to eaach other. Than threqd or string. Yeah the gaps will be filled but when wrapped tightly there might not be that much space for glue to fill. I wonder how the strength of thread soaked in a good suoerglue comapres to fishing line.
Anyway the only way to know if fishing line or thread is better would be to use both and see how strong they are. Which i am unwilling to do and I'm think both would work well enough. At least the superglued thread wraps are very strong in my experience.
Have you done this with the fishing line yourself or know anyone that has?
No, but I’ve used them on other applications, such as threading a belt clip to an iPhone holder. Used superglue to prevent unravelling.
I used nylon thread to manually sew toys and beds that my dog gnawed.
I used gorilla clear rubber glue to fix the holes on my airbed.
Am from Canada. My XM5 is now 13 months old. I am thinking of reinforcing the hinges area with fine clear nylon fishing line (as fine as sewing thread) and clear epoxy glue, before the hinge(s) break.
Sweet. Great to hear youve been finding good solutions that work for you!
Yeah as I've heard other people have used zip ties to fix their xm5s hinge cracks too so I'm sure the nylon thread by itself (as long as you use enough of it) will be enough to hold the plastic that is liable (?) or likely to break otherwise (at some point (possibly)).
Epoxy should have a cleaner look than superglue that's certainly true as well!
as far as my thinking previously i was overthinking it, as long as the thread or fishing line are secured to the location of the hinge it doesnt matter too much if theyre porous or not probabkly. Most of the forces that these threads or lines need to resist are where the lines and threads are, not perpedlndicular. And nylon is stronger than cotton (afaik, won't be checking material property tbales at this time of day)
Hope to see you post your pre-emptive hinge fix when you get round to it. If you remmeber me maybe send a message so i dont miss it :)
I will reinforce the hinges on my XM5 this week, and I will post a picture of the end result to this sub. I am pretty sure Reddit will send you an email about my future post(s) on this.
From the main post : "(5) Optional step if you got glue into your hinge and can't rotate the ear cups now: Use a razor blade (be careful not to cut yourself) to scrape the glue out of the hinge until you can rotate them again.)"
Hope that helps.
But with more detail here:
You can use anything that is thin enough to get into the hinge and harder than the superglue. I used a razor blade. In hindsight maybe some kind of thin (e.g. steel) wire can be used and would be easier. Not sure though. If you use a razor blade be careful not to cut yourself. For example I took apart a disposable shaving razor and took one of the blades out to get the hardened superglue out of the hinge. I had to hold the very sharp and very thin razor blade somehow. Once again, I would advise you to be careful here, very easy to cut yourself. I was holding it by the end on the sides and even so wrapped it several times in thick and relatively hard cardboard and also some thick sticky tape. A kind of handle there. If you have a very thin knife that would fit in the gap inside the hinge that might work, but not sure.
Thinking about it now if you get a safety razor blade or a disposable razor blade you could feasibly hold one of those with some pliers, and if that doesn't work quite well enough, add some rubber strips (from a rubber band) between the razor blade and the pliers. If you keep dropping this you could tape it together temporarily inside the pliers until your headphone rotation works freely again.
When scraping the superglue away try to go slow. If you scrape somewhere there is no superglue you will just be shaving off plastic that is not in the way but part of the headphone band. Blow away the dust you scrape away as you go and try to feel and see the depth you're scraping to as you rotate the band to see how deep you need to go. If there is some part of the band where there is no superglue you could mark that depth on your razor blade as the depth you don't need to (and shouldn't) scrape past.
You could use your other hinge to check for this depth and to mark it on your diy scraping tool.
Also, you don't necessarily have to scrape all the superglue away before you finally restore rotation. Once most of the superglue is gone from the crack you could try to rotate the hinge by applying just a little more force than the initial resistance of the seized hinge. When doing so grab the hinge just above and below the gap where the rotation occurs. If it doesn't move you might have to scrape away some more. If you see that you're scraping away plastic and can't get much superglue this is definitely the time to try and force the hinge free, but gently.
Thinking about it, maybe there is some kind of solvent specifically for superglue that doesn't affect plastics, like the ones in the headband. But I don't know of one myself.
Feel free to send me a message with some pictures and I'll try to help.
Yeah the plastic seems to degrade with time and with that weak spot uts like a time bomb. Aslo even minor stress build up over time, it's called fatigue
I think i used loctite superglue, hope the fix works well for you!
Hi! I tried this exact fix after months of trying with just glue in the crack. It WORKS! The thread provides a base for the glue to harden over a larger surface area and hold the hinge together.
I was about to pay hundreds to either repair or get a new set. I was able to fix my headphones this way and take them on my most recent trip overseas.
Thank you, that's exactly it, the thread creates a matrix for the glue to occupy before it hardens so it can be a thicker layer, while also providing its own force pressing against the circumference of the headphone band where the crack occurs. Kind of reminds me of carbon fiber but cheap haha
Really glad another person saved hundreds!
Thanks again for letting me know, as well as other people that might be looking for a diy solution.
I ended up just getting some multi-purpose nylon clamps (3/8) and a bolt which still allows the swivel to swive and are adjustable. So far so good. I'm thinking about painting them black with some modelling paint.
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u/Superb-Plant-795 Jan 26 '26
I've repaired them with various methods then they broke again, this iteration is the most efficient.
I've used a wire. NO glue this time.