Fan making strange noise

[kchen]

A couple of days ago the fan in my power box started to hum much louder than usual. This happens when I power on in the morning. I turn it off, rotate the fan manually a few times, and then power on again, and then it runs quietly as it should and it doesn't exhibit any weirdness for the rest of the day. But when I power on again the next day it gets loud again. This perplexes me. I checked the power box and everything seems tightly in place, no loose screws to cause rattling. There isn't any debris in the fan itself. Any ideas?

 

[Crashman]

That fan probably has a dry or loose bearing. When these are only a little loose I usually take them off, peel the lable, remove the center seal (if it has one), and put a couple drops of 10w30 motor oil in. Then I let it soak down the shaft, and put the thing back together.

The reason I use 10w30 is that it's thick enough to take up the gap in the bearing and prevent axial oscillation of the fan blade (that is, keep it from humming).

The sticker only sticks if the plastic is clean, grab a q-tip and alcohol to clean the surface if needed.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

antime a fan does that i just replace them, fans are cheap. I useally use duel ball bearing fans as a replacement as they will live alot longer.

<font color=blue>The Hardware Junkie</font color=blue>