How to maintain your fans, Also how to succesfully perform fan surgery

arkas · Mar 31, 2014

I've seen this post, fixed my fans and signed up to the forum just to say thank you. Thank you man. I used lithium grease and it's fine.

History: I had used WD 40 (failed) I also used 3 in 1 (failed also) I tried to inject lithium grease -inspired from a video where a man was regreasing his trailers wheels- (failed also) then I did the "surgery" and it's all good now.

de.das.dude · Mar 31, 2014

if you use copper grease it stops the squeaking really well. wd and other stuff is just temporary fixes. WD is not a lubricant its a water displacer for removing rusty nuts losening hinges and etc

Mussels · Mar 31, 2014

de.das.dude said:
if you use copper grease it stops the squeaking really well. wd and other stuff is just temporary fixes. WD is not a lubricant its a water displacer for removing rusty nuts losening hinges and etc

^ this

WD40 is a cleaner, not a lubricant. its definitely worth using, but you gotta grease it up after.

Devon68 · Mar 31, 2014

I had the stock fan on my old athlon PC getting stuck so I had to manually start it with my finger. So one day took it apart, cleaned it, and here comes the stupid part - I used cooking oil to lubricate it but after a day or two it just died.

I learned to NEVER USE COOKING OIL on a fan.

de.das.dude · Mar 31, 2014

never use cooking oil. coconut oil(funny eh?) is still okay but cooking oil is just bad as it attracts dirt.

micropage7 · Mar 31, 2014

de.das.dude said:
never use cooking oil. coconut oil(funny eh?) is still okay but cooking oil is just bad as it attracts dirt.

yes, although its oily, i just use it for door
if you have any left motor oil, you can use it. just one drop and it will fine

de.das.dude · Mar 31, 2014

its about the viscosity... not other things... if its too thin... it wont work, line in the case of WD. if its too viscous it will create heat.

Vario · Mar 31, 2014

I've used 3 in 1 before with decent results. Also have used Sewing Machine oil, which was ideal.

erocker · Mar 31, 2014

I use this on all of my fans:

theJesus · Mar 31, 2014

I'd post what I use, but I'd get an infraction.

Peter1986C · Apr 1, 2014

Do not click the spoiler in sensitive environments, although I do not see the issue.

I bet it is Durex Play

AsRock · Apr 15, 2017

Thought i should give this thread a bump as seen as i just did some maintenance on a fan i needed for a little project.

I use oil and superlube, although 1st i use CRC electronic cleaner to get the rubbish out of the bearings, then soak them in Sin synthetic lube which i used to use with RC cars, after putting the bearing back in i seal one side with the super lube so the oil don't leakout then seal it from the other side.

Aenra · Apr 15, 2017

Nice info in this thread, thank you for bumping! Though i'll be honest, this is a touch too much for my taste. As in i'd have thought this can be avoided/not strictly necessary.

All my rigs so far, i never had a fan going bad on me. Bit of care during blowing (and that only once a month, if not rarer) and that was it. Of course, i pay premium for fans, O.K., i replace everything with Noctuas or others of equivalent pricing, including the case ones. And that's it.
(exception being the GPU fans, these motherbuggers are just bound to start rattling sooner or later. Which.. is why i bought the GPU in my sig, lol. I swore i'd never have a GPU-attached fan again. If that means custom loop in the next rig, so be it)

Of course, Murphy's being Murphy's, i bet you i'll have to return here eventually

flexy · Oct 6, 2017

I don't know how many I already brought back to life, tons. Basically ALL fans go 'put at some time. (Talking about after some years or so).
Nice instructions, doing the same thing, just be careful not to lose the small rubber rings and the washers when you open up the fans.
Take the entire thing out, clean the axle and the hole with 96% alcohol. Clean everything, also the washers, and of course the entire fan, blades etc.
Put it back. One drop of sewing machine oil on the axle/hole. Put the final ring and then the washer back (note the order there, the rubber goes first, then the washer), then the nylon clamp ring and then put the cap on and the label. Done.

The entire thing to do is easy and effective, not even a reason to get new fans really. But in my case (PUN!!) the problem was not so much fixing the fan, but mounting the fan back on the HSF with zip ties. The GPU was blocking access there so I had to take out the GPU. Since the HSF was also dirty I took the opportunity to take out the entire HSF, which of course also meant applying new MX4 on the CPU etc. I always hate it when something which SHOULD be simple and only should take 2 mins turns out some major op

Anyway...not sure whether Vaseline or sewing machine oil would actually be better, this time I used oil since the old fan was all greasy, I might actually have fixed this one (a Scythe) before once.

** As for fans with ball bearings...what you can do there is to put the bearings into alcohol....leave them in there for a while and later dunk them in oil. Just an idea.

*** Edit 2: In your PC bios, keep the setting activated where it monitors your FAN speed. Otherwise you will never know when your fan actually craps out! The BIOS and it sporadically reporting that the fan is not turning ("CPU FAN ERROR") or turning slower than it should as it happened here is also a sign that the fan is going and needs to be replaced or this fix.

jboydgolfer · Oct 6, 2017

quick & easiest way to clean Case fans????? open case up , with power, or power fans on outside of case, get paintbrush, and gently touch it to the spinning fan blades, cleans dirt/dust off SUPER fast, and makes fan cleaning easy as can be.

RejZoR · Oct 6, 2017

It's not recommended to fill the bearing chamber with oil. It'll cause the fan blade rotor to slip within the bearing and cause unwanted noise. Bearings should be either replaced or thoroughly cleaned and re-lubed (for which you need to use the vacuum chamber approach to force in the lubrication agent). Filling oil chamber is only recommended for sleeve bearing based fans.

I usually clean fan blades with a micro fiber cloth. Compressor doesn't remove it all, plus it sprays compressor oil which later causes more dust to stick...

Athlonite · Oct 6, 2017

jboydgolfer said:
quick & easiest way to clean Case fans????? open case up , with power, or power fans on outside of case, get paintbrush, and gently touch it to the spinning fan blades, cleans dirt/dust off SUPER fast, and makes fan cleaning easy as can be.

That only cleans the top side of the fan not usually the place that dust accumulates the most try doing that to the underside and the fan will stop turning. You're better off turning of the system and removing the fan allowing you to get to both sides of the blades it also allows you to check for cracks in the fins of which I've found the coolermaster sickle blade fans to be the worse for especially if they're a few years old

Athlonite · Oct 6, 2017

RejZoR said:
It's not recommended to fill the bearing chamber with oil. It'll cause the fan blade rotor to slip within the bearing and cause unwanted noise. Bearings should be either replaced or thoroughly cleaned and re-lubed (for which you need to use the vacuum chamber approach to force in the lubrication agent). Filling oil chamber is only recommended for sleeve bearing based fans.

I usually clean fan blades with a micro fiber cloth. Compressor doesn't remove it all, plus it sprays compressor oil which later causes more dust to stick...

I'll usually use a compressor first then an old horse hair paint brush then iso alcohol to get rid of any stick shit left behind

de.das.dude · Oct 9, 2017

jboydgolfer said:
quick & easiest way to clean Case fans????? open case up , with power, or power fans on outside of case, get paintbrush, and gently touch it to the spinning fan blades, cleans dirt/dust off SUPER fast, and makes fan cleaning easy as can be.

true, but this is not for cleaning fans

Kabouter Plop · Sep 30, 2020

Could't find any answers but how long a fan usually last after lubricating it with white vaseline or something equally as good before it starts making noise again ? i have alphacool fans hydraulic fan bearing since may 1 month ago 1 started to fail and grind fixed up with white vaseline now works good again, now today another fan started to make ticking noise also lubricated now, im worried i end up lubricating them all 1 by 1, can i expect them to last least 6 month's or should i expect to replace them soon ?

Caring1 · Oct 1, 2020

erocker said:
I use this on all of my fans:

That's what she said. :roll:

de.das.dude · Oct 6, 2020

Kabouter Plop said:
Could't find any answers but how long a fan usually last after lubricating it with white vaseline or something equally as good before it starts making noise again ? i have alphacool fans hydraulic fan bearing since may 1 month ago 1 started to fail and grind fixed up with white vaseline now works good again, now today another fan started to make ticking noise also lubricated now, im worried i end up lubricating them all 1 by 1, can i expect them to last least 6 month's or should i expect to replace them soon ?

vaseline dries out pretty quickly. thats why i switched to grease.

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How to maintain your fans, Also how to succesfully perform fan surgery

Sticky this?

Yes (will re write thread with better pics and stuff.

No

arkas

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de.das.dude

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