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Repair MacBook Pro cooling fan rattling
Authored by: Frederico on Feb 14, '11 03:18:22PM

In a previous life I was a machinist and electric motor and engine remanufacturing plant owner. Learned an awful lot about lubricants.

Depending on the quality of the fan, it may either have 'oilite' (oil impregnated bronze bushings) or a pair of quality micro-roller bearings.

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. 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. 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.

You can usually apply this kind of oil without removing the fan itself, unless it is a recessed motor-type.

One would think that a specialized electric motor lubricant would be best, and if you want to spend the 10x cost, you can absolutely get a can of such from any automotive store; these are generally specialized for use in alternators and starter motors, and very often come with an extremely useful micro-needle tip to get it into the bearing itself; but most are just designed to spray-saturate and then evaporate the excess or be washed away with water. Very messy for such a tiny application.

If the bearings are micro-roller type, I have been extremely successful with this product:

(http://www.bgprod.com/products/special.html) BG Pre-Lube Part No. 825 6 oz. (177 mL) tube

I have been using this product for two decades on electric motors and numerous other roller-bearing applications. It is honey-thick, but does not evaporate and leave any residue. I use it most on Apple Mac Pro front end fans )they seem to go the fastest) and most especially on ATi and nVidia video card GPU cooling fans. In 2006-2009, ATi seemed to have put the most obnoxiously cheap and hard to replace fans with no adequate heat sink protection between the fan motor and the GPU itself.

In addition to carefully prying loose the uber-tiny bearing seals and using a hypodermic needle to inject the BGPL, I also install .030 fiber-paper gaskets (a loose-weave cloth material) between the actual fan housing and heat sink to keep the fan from getting baked.

If you can even find these fans they run well over $50 each, and won't last any longer than the originals.

Anyway, be sure to work on these fans over a large, clean surface, and be prepared for the tiny (usually teflon or PVC) bearing seals/covers to want to pop off like a spring and hide better than any contact lens ever made in carpets and dark floors. Without replacing these covers, you are dooming the fan to imminent death as they will be unable to retain the applied lubricant. Best to use a dental pick with a flat edge, and work it from the outside first, then to the inside so when it pops off, the ring will be captured by the pick; ot at least aim the fan so the seal will pop off into an area that can capture the seal (e.g., inside a large box pointed down).



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