The vinegar will neutralize the acid, a good thing to do. A soft brass wire brush should help with removing the rest if you are gentle with it.

Vinegar is acid.

Can you post some pics?

SETBLASTER wrote:

is there any other way to clean corrosion left on soldering?

If continuity is an issue, flux it, carefully scrape it back to metal, and retouch it.

Don't use a toothbrush -- it generates ESD since they're synthetic fiber. Use a short/stiff hog hair brush with wooden handle. Neutralize and gently scrub with white vinegar. Rinse with DI water or isopropyl alcohol. Make a baking soda scrub with a small amount of DI water so you get a paste. Gently scrub and neutralize further. Rinse with DI water or isopropyl alcohol. Clean and protect it after with DEOXIT. This is of course if there's no damage to the solder mask, traces, pads, or solder points. Remask with PCB paint/epoxy if the traces are still good -- if not, re-run the trace either with the appropriate wire or a new gold trace. Replace any eaten away pads with new pads if necessary. Desolder, clean, and resolder (replace) components if they're bad.

Look at the link in my signature if you need a guide for repairs.

wiretap wrote:

Don't use a toothbrush -- it generates ESD since they're synthetic fiber. Use a short/stiff hog hair brush with wooden handle.

For the first step (coarse cleaning in hot tenside tap water to get rid of dust, fats and smoker residues) I always used toothbrushes, as I believe (which is different from actual knowing!) that the conductivity of the local tap water is sufficient enough to suppress any static buildup.

When cleaning with acid/tenside mix in the next step to remove the corrosion stuff, the liquid is always ionized and thus conductive, so I guess toothbrushes aren't a big risk there either.

For the IPA cleaning part I use brushes like you mentioned, however only those with a metallic clamp, religiously avoiding those with plastic clamp. Probably it is also good to avoid cleaning in non-metallic bins.

I also believe that remaining corrosion pitted, non-shiny surfaces are only a cosmetic problem (unless the metal has absorbed stuff like mercury), so I only resolder when I suspect contact problem.

retardware wrote:

wiretap wrote:

Don't use a toothbrush -- it generates ESD since they're synthetic fiber. Use a short/stiff hog hair brush with wooden handle.

For the first step (coarse cleaning in hot tenside tap water to get rid of dust, fats and smoker residues) I always used toothbrushes, as I believe (which is different from actual knowing!) that the conductivity of the local tap water is sufficient enough to suppress any static buildup.

Agreed, there is no need to be afraid of ESD as long as tooth brush is wet.

SETBLASTER wrote:

is there any other way to clean corrosion left on soldering?
( green stuff is minimal but sometimes you cant remove it fully and..im talking about what corrision does to soldered components when the soldering is not shiny..and looks pale and acumulates a lot of god knows what..dust or whatever it is that if you scratch with a needle on the soldering it starts to clean

As long as SMD component is still held tightly in place by a solder, it should do its job. If you are bothered by the corroded looks of PCB, you can remove oxides/residues by the help of hydrochloric acid, but bear in mind, it won't make solder shiny.

If you don't have the resources to restore the traces, you can jump them by using appropriately gauged wire from point to point. Looks ugly as sin, but electrically, the components don't care. All they need is a path.

Weird thing about the toothbrush ESD theory.... i've used them dry and sometimes with 91% isopropyl alcohol to clean all types of computer parts and have had zero issues running the components shortly after.

Most of the time ESD isn't an instant killer, but rather a latent failure mechanism. It is not a conspiracy theory, but rather well studied science that businesses spend billions on globally every year to guard against. Also, never do even coarse cleaning with tap water.. it leaves behind minerals and sediment (conductive/corrosive), especially under BGA chips. DI/RO water is less than a dollar..

wiretap wrote:

... tap water.. it leaves behind minerals and sediment (conductive/corrosive), especially under BGA chips. DI/RO water is less than a dollar..

Good point!
Even when submerging and thoroughly rinsing with 99% IPA directly afterwards to displace the water, there probably will be residues.

Would it be sufficient and okay to add a drop of concentrated vinegar to make the demineralized water conductive enough to use a hard toothbrush? (My reason for liking toothbrushes is that they are stronger/harder than normal paintbrushes, which helps a lot with hard residues)
What do you think?

BTW, some people use their dishwasher for PCB cleaning.
I wonder what this does to the PCB (especially under BGA), as glass and porcelaine regularly being washed by dishwashers often have characteristic whitish staining/residues and rough surface...

In theory this is all correct.... but....

I really have a hard time believing anything in reasonably pure tap water is worse than the buildup of common everyday dust and airborne contaminants that cover your typical air-cooled PC components. Granted, I live in a fairly dry locale (read: evaporates quickly) with excellent local tap water. YMMV. I regularly bathe PCBs in tap and brush them (wet) with whatever giveaway dental goody-bag toothbrush I have on-hand. It's not exactly the ideal way, sure, but the real and actual risk is pretty darn low compared to stuff these components have to endure during normal operating conditions.