Thinkpads Forum

The fan on my 14.1" widescreen T61 is starting to rattle a bit, or maybe it has for a while and I've only started noticing it now that I replaced the hard drive with a solid state.

It rattles at specific RPMs and is loudest as the RPMs are increasing rapidly or slowing down rapidly. I'm assuming the bearings are getting worn out.

Looking online, I see a lot of sellers selling just the fan itself rather than the fan/heatsink assembly. Has anyone taken apart the fan from the heatsink and is there anything to keep in mind in doing so?

My T61 originally came with the Nvidia GPU. This failed after 5 years of use, and I ended up replacing the motherboard with an Intel integrated GPU model, but retained the original beefier fan/heatsink assembly designed for the Nvidia GPU. This has worked fine with no issues.

If I do replace the whole fan/heatsink assembly, I'm debating if I go for one for the integrated GPU.

Thanks for any help.

If you can take your fan apart, you can also just try and lubricate your fan if the fan allows you to do so, and that most likely will solve you that problem.
The extra lubricant fills in some wear on your bearings if that is the case and helps stabilising the fan when it is spinning, and other times the lubricant simply dripped away and not enough is left inside the bearings and axles.
Did that to like 3 T43 long fans and one T41 short fan and no problems with noise since. For these things the fan blades come off the base of the fan and you drop lubricant in that way

kfzhu1229 wrote: ↑

Thu May 14, 2020 10:56 am

If you can take your fan apart, you can also just try and lubricate your fan if the fan allows you to do so, and that most likely will solve you that problem.
Did that to like 3 T43 long fans and one T41 short fan and no problems with noise since. For these things the fan blades come off the base of the fan and you drop lubricant in that way

Thanks, any advice on what type of oil to use?

MEA707 wrote: ↑

Thu May 14, 2020 11:08 am

kfzhu1229 wrote: ↑

Thu May 14, 2020 10:56 am

If you can take your fan apart, you can also just try and lubricate your fan if the fan allows you to do so, and that most likely will solve you that problem.
Did that to like 3 T43 long fans and one T41 short fan and no problems with noise since. For these things the fan blades come off the base of the fan and you drop lubricant in that way

Thanks, any advice on what type of oil to use?

In my case I just used olive oil lying around and it worked perfectly. You can get a more professional one but the thing is you are only gonna use it once soo.
First see if the bottom sticker of the fan hides a hole underneath that you can drip oil in.
If not you have to try disassembling the fan. You have to deweld some joints to separate the fan from the heatsink and then see if the blades can be lifted straight out of the aluminium casing like on the case of the T4x fans, and then drip oil in there.
Also while at it, you can also try dripping some WD40 onto your hinges' opening as I also discover that can also smoothen up the movement of the hinges, olive oil also works if you don't have wd40.

Yeah, I don't want my ThinkPads smelling like an Italian salad.

I recommend DEXRON VI / Synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid or an equivalent. It's synthetic, so very high heat resistance, clean, and smells nice. It's in All my Cadillacs. Just a pin tip drop will do.

BTW, my T61 8898 has been rattling for a while, but I'll clean it out again later. It doesn't get hot as per TPFanControl. I wish they'd come out with a newer version of that.

IBM_ECW: /viewtopic.php?f=2&t=104389
http://bertrand.deo.free.fr/IBM_EC/index_e.html

BTW I noticed my T60 started to smell a bit after lying around unused for a long time. It's a very distinctive smell. Smell of old electronics. That's old oscillographs used to smell in my dad's lab when he was doing physics research. Anybody knows what that smell is?..

Thanks, RBS, again.

Another good lube, if you are an old HO slot car aficionado like me, is the Aurora ThunderJet 500 or AF/X Special Racing Oil, which is probably some sort of ATF. It certainly smells similar. I have dozens of the little 1/3 oz bottles and it's much more handy than trying to get a pin drop amount from a quart bottle.

is it even possible to get rid of the rattle at all?
i probably bought a new fan for it couple of years ago, but i think the rattle never went away, so i ended up bending the copper casing a bit, but even that didnt remove it completely lol..
the fan seems to just slide off the magnets, so at least it should be easy to clean...

screenshot wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 05, 2020 3:10 pm

is it even possible to get rid of the rattle at all?
i probably bought a new fan for it couple of years ago, but i think the rattle never went away, so i ended up bending the copper casing a bit, but even that didnt remove it completely lol..
the fan seems to just slide off the magnets, so at least it should be easy to clean...

It depends on how much wear the fan has collected.
If the fan had JUST started rattling, most probably lubricating it will eliminate the rattling entirely
If it had been rattling for years, then lubricating it will still eliminate the rattling but the fan may just be louder than typical like as if it is spinning faster.
At least this is my experience with lubricating T4x fans

the new fan was also rattling, so i had to bend the copper a bit, but that still didnt fix it... (it probably started to rattle at certain angles only tho)
but which oil could i use then? just buy some 1 liter Atf oil or try to find a smaller sewing machine oil or smth?
(the new fan probably had less fins also, plus had more mass in the top middle... original seems to be like hollow from the middle a bit..)

ATF would be better, Synthetic ATF even better.

Mt T61 8898 fan has been rattling off and on for years. When I can't stand it any longer, I'll tear it down and clean or replace it.

cadillacmike68 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 06, 2020 11:04 pm

Mt T61 8898 fan has been rattling off and on for years. When I can't stand it any longer, I'll tear it down and clean or replace it.

If I were you I would lubricate it as soon as I hear the fan rattling noise. A rattling fan will continue to eat away the internals of the fan at a faster rate and by then if you lube it, the rattling will go away but your fan will still be noticibly louder than a new one because the circular cutout for the fan axle to sit on will no longer be circular. This is my experience with lubing with T43 fans.

UPDATE:

Today I took the fan off the heatsink assembly, removed the fan itself and put a a drop of 3-in-1 oil, closed it back up, and the rattle is completely gone.

I applied MasterGel Nano thermal paste replacing the previous Arctic Silver 5 I had and it's running cooler now as well.

MEA707 wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 16, 2020 9:17 pm

Today I took the fan off the heatsink assembly, removed the fan itself and put a a drop of 3-in-1 oil, closed it back up, and the rattle is completely gone.

I applied MasterGel Nano thermal paste replacing the previous Arctic Silver 5 I had and it's running cooler now as well.

Nice! I mean this trick also means you don't have to dispose of a fan that can be otherwise perfectly working.
Note though from my experience this trick does NOT work on magnetic levitating fans. It worked on none of my Sunon maglev fans (if they allow you to open it up at all)

kfzhu1229 wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 16, 2020 10:42 pm

MEA707 wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 16, 2020 9:17 pm

Today I took the fan off the heatsink assembly, removed the fan itself and put a a drop of 3-in-1 oil, closed it back up, and the rattle is completely gone.

I applied MasterGel Nano thermal paste replacing the previous Arctic Silver 5 I had and it's running cooler now as well.

Nice! I mean this trick also means you don't have to dispose of a fan that can be otherwise perfectly working.
Note though from my experience this trick does NOT work on magnetic levitating fans. It worked on none of my Sunon maglev fans (if they allow you to open it up at all)

Definitely! I was getting ready to order a new fan, but decided to try to see if lubricating it would solve it, and so far I'm very pleased with the results. It's running like new.

On mine the bearing was worn out. I hat to replace the whole fan assembly. But its not that expensive

I have a little noise coming from the fan in my x61s and found this thread. I'm surprised the amount of bad information floating around these parts when I'm sure some of you actually work on machines and motors and might have a little better idea what to use. DO NOT use olive oil or cooking oil, that is going to be a different viscosity and should stay far away from your computer. A high speed machine oil like something used on a sewing machine is what you should use. I see some people using WD40 which shouldn't be used as fan lubricant either. I've certainly been in a pinch and have thought of using automotive engine oil, which again, is a bad idea for a computer fan. These fans don't get anywhere near the operating temperature for that oil do be of any good.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Singer-Machi ... z/19398733

One of these will last you the rest of your life is you use it only for resuscitating computer fans.