Nexus One Warranty Question

[Simer03]

Hey guys, i have a predicament here with my Nexus One.....for some reason, all of a sudden my phone has stopped reading SD cards, so i called HTC and got them to do a swap for my phone because this should be covered under warranty! However here's where my problem exists.....a while back i replaced the bottom cover of my Nexus One, the part where it says "htc" on it, and the replacement does not have the gold sensors that you use if you have a dock! The reason i replaced it is because the original one had a little accident, and some of the piece flaked off so a blotch of it is dark black! basically what im asking is, should i send the phone back with the new bottom cover without the sensors, or should i put back the old one with the damage? I noticed that anything that is not covered by the warranty, they will charge me a repair fee....and exterior damage is not covered under the warranty! what should i do?

 

[icebike]

They are going to replace the phone anyway, so I can't see why this matters.
Its not like anybody does board level soldering to replace the MicroSD slot on these devices.