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    Fan maintenance

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Gregory, Feb 21, 2008.

  1. Gregory

    Gregory disassemble?

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    I've never been frugal enough to actually fix a fan before until I came across a seemingly impossible to find fan in an old Dell server. I came across this site:

    http://www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm

    Since I have several hours until any stores around here open I'm curious to see if anyone has oiled a fan before.

    Any recommendations of what oil seems to last the longest before the fan gets noisy again?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 29, 2015
    Gregory, Feb 21, 2008
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  2. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    They use special bearing oil. Low/Med viscosity which lasts long as stays the same thickness even under heat and high speed. Some bearings use grease which is sorta thick but it goes thin after the bearings spin up at high speeds and lubricate better then it goes thick again after it gets cold for longer life.

    Ask for skateboard bearing oil or Radio Control Car bearing oil. These should work too. I had an nitro rc car a few years ago and to reach top speeds you needed performance bearings that constantly needed cleaning and lubing

    You can try wd40 but i guarantee you it wont lubricate for very long lol
     
    flipfire, Feb 21, 2008
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  3. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    The article recommends 3in1 Oil or sewing likely as good as any. I mean the fan is going to fail in a relatively short time any way so it's not like you need 50,000 mile synthetic oil. And the article did say no WD-40 too much Kerosene and to thin. And frugal, yea that's one way to put it there are others. :D
     
    powerpack, Feb 21, 2008
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  4. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    Adding oild to the bearings on the fan, will most likely cause the impendance between the current poles to fail. Oil is for the most part non-conductive. Of it gets between the bushings of the fan and the rotor, the fan will barely turn. It is better off to buy a new fan.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Feb 21, 2008
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  5. Gregory

    Gregory disassemble?

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    I wasn't lying when I made my user name "gregory is cheap". haha.

    Dell made some of those old servers with very unusual size fans. In order to put a standard fan in there I would need to start drilling holes in the computer... That might be the best bet if oil doesn't hold up.
     
    Gregory, Feb 21, 2008
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  6. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    Might aswell try destroying the old fan first.

    You can try using lithium grease, but you will need to get the bearing shielding out to apply this.
     
    flipfire, Feb 21, 2008
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