I have a Wang 8088 APC that I bought in the mid 80s. I kept it for a DOS structural engineering program on it that we used till 2016. Only part ever replaced was the PSU, which I took from 5 spare machines I was given when a client moved on to Windows based systems. Best route for lubricating fans ? ... buy decent fans and you won't have to. Have another build here from 2011 ... two fans died. Contacted Antec and asked to purchase replacements as that fan was no longer "in the store". Antec replaced them free of charge.
Many people don't realize that WD40 is actually a cleaner. Any lubrication that it provides is purely incidental (and short-lived).
Tell that to someone who has stepped on it after their kids used it in the kitchen and excess spray landed on the floor
..... missed work for 2 days after finding myself flat on my back
Truth is, it is exactly the opposite ... it's the the volatile hydrocarbon that exists short term ... it evaporates, leaving behind the oil. That being said, it is a low viscosity oil and is not intended to last very long. I find it particularly useful when using "hardware store" duplicate keys which tend to require a bit of "wiggling" to get to work ... a spitz of WD-40 every 3-4 years makes them work effortlessly.
From Wiki:
"WD-40 is the trademark name of a
penetrating oil and water-displacing spray ... The long-term active ingredient is a
non-volatile viscous oil which remains on the surface to which it is applied,
giving lubrication and protection from moisture. This
oil is diluted with a volatile hydrocarbon to make a low viscosity fluid which can be aerosolized to penetrate crevices.
The volatile hydrocarbon then evaporates, leaving behind the oil. A propellant (originally a low-molecular-weight hydrocarbon, now carbon dioxide) creates pressure in the can to force the liquid through the can's nozzle before evaporating. The product is also sold in bulk as a liquid to industrial companies."
Also
https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-aerosol-low-voc-sds-us-ghs.pdf
The composition is:
LVP Aliphatic Hydrocarbon = 45-50 %
Petroleum Base Oil = < 35 %
Aliphatic Hydrocarbon = < 25 %
Carbon Dioxide = 2 - 3%
Again, WD uses a
low viscosity oil which is not intended for other than light loads.... and that's what we have in PC fans and why they use it. If the fan is noisy, it has lost lubricant which undoubtedly picked up some gummy residue and dust; the WD would / should help clear that out. Lubrication of PC fans is generally only recommended for sleeve bearing PC fans. These are designed with a shaft spinning inside a cylinder of porous metal which is impregnated with a low viscosity oil. The bearing is designed to have a sufficient amount of oil to last the fan's lifetime. Sometimes this seal will fail and the way most find out about it is after some wear occurs and it starts to make noise. Adding oil at this point is in essence addressing the symptom not the problem.... if it has leaked out, it will do so again. Lubricating sleeve bearing fans successfuly involves ...
a) peel back the label
b) use a professional specialist's tool aka "pointie thingie" like a toothpick or sewing needle to pry off the cap.
c) Add a drop or 2 of oil in the lubricating well
d) put back the cap.
Those caps are generally held in place by friction and you can sometimes skip this step if don't want to put in the effort. If you use a
low viscosity oil as recommended for sleeve bearings, it can slip in thru the teeny gap. In other fans, the cap is glued and adding oil outside the cap is useless. Sleeve bearings work by oil suspension. The oil has to be thin enough to get easily between the bearing and spindle, thick enough that it won't weep thru the seals at the end of the bearing but not so thick that it puts its own drag on the spindle. When seal wear happens and the lube ends up weeping out adding more lubricant is a short term solution. If the seal is worn enough to let the lubricant out, it won't stop any added oil from doing the same thing. In short, if you need to do it, you will need to keep doing it ... for me, I'd rather just replace the fan.
Ball bearing fans are generally sealed and as such, adding oil is not an option.
Best practices ...
a) Buy quality fans so you don't have to bother
b) Consult your fan manufacturer
For the last 6 years, we've been using the Phanteks PH-F140SPs which topped the charts in silentpcreview,com's performance testing. Whenever supply here gets low, I buy 10 or so when newegg has their "$5 off" specials (last purchase were $10.89 each). We had one fan about 3 years ago, that made noise about 2 months in on the top of the case. They are rifle bearing designs and one thing common to this type of fan is that the slide a bit along the shaft between "stops". When used as push fans blowing down thru a radiator in the typical water cooling manner, at high speeds they can lift up and as fan speeds change up and down, they can make a chattering noise as the blade assembly rides the shaft hitting the stops. I didn't think 1250 rpm was sufficient to do this and on top of that only one fan was making the noise. So I contacted Phanteks to set up an RMA (5 year warranty), they sent two replacements "for my trouble" and didn't want the old fan back. The noisy one was quiet when installed as a pull fan but I wound up installing it vertically and it was quiet that way also.
If I find myself in a situation where a fan makes noise, I'll RMA it ... or just pull one of the $11 spares off the shelf.
