Please note this will not cure any vibration due to seriously worn bushings, but it will allow for otherwise acceptably worn bushings to spin fee, quiet, smooth and cool. The 3in1 oil will be easily absorbed into the porous bronze, and, as long as you let it sit for an hour or so, and wipe off any excess, you will have no sling-off worries that would just be a dirt magnet.
If the former, good ol' 3in1 electric motor oil (not household oil!) will work for many, many, many months (read: years) if they are henceforth kept reasonably free of dust buildup and are not overworked or under-specced for their environment. Learned an awful lot about lubricants.ĭepending on the quality of the fan, it may either have 'oilite' (oil impregnated bronze bushings) or a pair of quality micro-roller bearings. In a previous life I was a machinist and electric motor and engine remanufacturing plant owner.
I'm positive someone else can chime in with a better recommendation on how to lubricate these fans. In short, I don't advise oiling at all, especially given the risk of the lubricant being slung around the internals, but if you really want to go this route, at least use a good lubricant. I'll say that my experience with relubricating these little fans is that the fix is extremely temporary and that the effort to open up the machine is better matched by installing a new fan that you can get for $5-10 from Mouser or somewhere like that. You can find that in gunshops, machine shops, and in large quantities at motorcycle shops, often sold under the brand name DrySlide. (It says its Teflon impregnated, but I doubt that's in any significant amount.) An even better solution might be an oil or evaporating medium impregnated with molybdenum disulfide. It's light, long-lasting, and leaves no residue. A better cheap solution is RemOil, a gun oil found in the gun section of Wal-Mart or at a real gunshop. Motor oil might work, but it's probably too viscous. I've had to clean up a lot of messes left by both. The same is true of vegetable oils, but they're even worse in that they often contain acids. Sewing machine oil will dry out, leaving a gummy residue. But it saved me $100, and I can now use my old MBP peacefully until I'm ready to get a new one.Īs a one time gunsmith, I can tell you that sewing machine oil or vegetable oil would be very horrible choices. Was it noisy because the lubricant had migrated way? Or had it worn out? I don't know, but this isn't a brand new fan, so it's probably not going to last another 4 years before it needs to be lubed again or replaced entirely (assuming this notebook is in use for any purpose at that time). The pin looked a little worn, probably because it had been rattling not too badly for months now. I dipped a swab in some motor oil (sewing machine oil would probably be better, and soybean or canola oil might be adequate) and put a light coat on the metal spindle pin.
The circular hub contains a magnetic ring and a spindle pin that kinds looks like what's on the right side of this image. What's left on the top plate looks vaguely like this. Then you can gently pry the black plastic circular hub (with the blades) away from the motor, and it'll pop off. You can unscrew the two tiny phillips head screws on the fan and lift the top plate and motor from the housing below. I wish I had taken a photo of the fan disassembled. This is what the fan looks like when removed from the computer. That didn't work for me, unfortunately.Īfter some research and tinkering, I learned that some of these brushless fan motors can lose their lubrication over time, and moreover, they can be RE-lubricated. I opened up the computer (according to an article like this) and aimed my can of 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane at it. Dust can accumulate on the blades and throw it out of balance. One of the places I called suggested that blowing the dust out might help. I was irritated at the prospect of spending at least $100 on a 4-year-old notebook that I plan to replace in like two months when the new model comes out. The fan itself costs at least $40, and the labor charges were at least $60. Every place I called had a 2 or 3 day lead time on the part and a 2-day turn-around for the repair once the part was in. When my 2007 MacBook Pro's left cooling fan started rattling really loudly last night, I thought I was in for a time-consuming repair. Or perhaps it just needs to be relubricated. People report symptoms of rattling and even loud grinding.
The little cooling fans inside of Mac notebooks run upwards of 6000 RPM, and they can eventually wear out.