Electrolytic capacitors carry the major advantage that you can obtain a high capacitance in a relatively small package, and this is why they are used extensively by manufacturers. It is a property of the Electrolytic capacitor itself that makes it polorised.
Failure of Electrolytic Capacitors due to drying out or leaking is common, and is the main disadvantage using them. Look at any product and you'll usually find that at least a couple of electrolytics are favourites for leaking or drying out. These devices normally fall down in high stress areas such as power supplies or in our case Audio Amp stages! It's not poor design on behalf of Commodore, it's just a property of the electrolytic capacitors themselves that they have a limited life expectancy in high stress areas.
Castellen was right to offer the advice of cleaning the surrounding PCB if an electrolytic capacitor is ever found to be leaking - the substance is corrosive and over time can cause problems with the PCB surface, although normally it is easily cleaned off as the leak occurs topside not copper side.
For removal of surface mount devices like the type you describe, I find it is actually easier to leave the solder on them because it aids in the removal. Get yourself a precision pair of tweezers, pull gently on the component and then heat both ends alternately. You'll find the component will lift off fairly easily that way because the solder stays molten at both ends giving you enough time to free the component
This tactic changes completley when manufacturers are kind enough to physically GLUE components down though, although this method is only normally practised with surface mount ICs - which require a different methof of removal anyway.
Brian
