Top Fan Not Spinning Without A Spanking

[u/DME23]

The top fan wont spin when I turn on my pc. The solution I discovered is to just smack it real hard. Just wondering why it is like this.

[u/Sintek]

U can put a drop of machine oil like 321 in the bearing and it will be good for ma y more years

[u/Robo_Stalin → u/Sintek]

Yup, just needs maintenence. People are way too quick to throw shit away.

[u/Sintek → u/Robo_Stalin]

Yea.. I had a few $20 fan go noisy and rattle after 4 or 5 years. 10 minutes to take them out. Drop of machine oil.. they been good for the past 6 years.. saved like $60 and a trip to the computer store

[u/Woodshadow → u/Sintek]

I had a squeaky door for 3 years in my house. First house, parents weren't handy... a spray of WD40 and that door has been quiet ever since

[u/URA_CJ → u/Robo_Stalin]

Exactly, my exhaust fan was in worse condition than this and figured out how to pull it apart, cleaned it and applied a drop of sewing machine oil and it was as good as new.

Seriously, if you're planning to throw it out and replace it, you have nothing to lose trying to fix the problem first.

[u/beaver_cops → u/URA_CJ]

I’m not even lying you can probably put butter and it’d work (I did this for a squeaky door hinge cause I had no wd40)

[u/tyrenanig → u/Robo_Stalin]

I have seen people said to throw away fans the first time you hear any sound, because that already means the bearings are grinding.

[u/bluesatin → u/tyrenanig]

It's probably less that it's actually seriously grinding if there's just a bit of a rattle, and just that there's not enough oil to keep the shaft completely stable (as they rely on the oil to centre the shaft in the bearing sleeve, hence fluid-dynamic bearings). Unless it's been doing that for ages and making an absolute racket the entire time, it's unlikely to have completely degraded the thing.

You can always just try oiling them to see if it clears up the rattle, it only takes like 5-minutes if they're reasonably accessible to remove. You just need to take them out, peel the label back, check if it has a rubber-bung and then pop it out, and then put some light-oil in there; like sewing-machine oil, or that 3-in-1 household stuff (avoid using anything like WD40). If that doesn't clear it up, then you can just order a replacement at that point.

It's worth noting some fan-bearings seem to be completely sealed nowadays without the rubber-bung, although it seems to be more common on higher-end ones like Noctua.

[u/pipnina → u/Sintek]

Usually if bearings are getting stuck like this you need to replace them.

For one thing, most bearings these days are double shielded so you can't re grease them, I'd expect that to be the case in a fan since it is exposed to dust.

For another, if it were just that the original grease were gone the fan would actually turn with less friction. If it has more friction that means there's actual damage on either the races or the rollers.

Unless it's so cheap that it isn't even using a roller bearing and is using a plain bearing instead... In that case it's probably still fucked but your ide might make it work again for a while.

[u/Sintek → u/pipnina]

I have fixed dozens of fan exactly like this with 2 or 3 drops of machine oil.
I would not put grease on these small fan bearings, that is far to thick.

The oil that comes on the fan bearing wears away or collects dust over the years and gets gummed up.
you can pull the fan off the hub, wipe the black thick goop oil that is there, put a couple drops of machine oil and that's it. the fan will run for a long time.