Using motor oil in cooling fans?

[elkinm]

Most of my fans usually die quite fast, some in a month or so, even if they are high quality.
The primary cause is dust or something in the bearings as my room is very dusty.
I have washed them and WD-40'd them but they still die and I am to lazy to keep replacing them.

Would a high viscosity motor oil improve life and keep the dust out. If they can lubricate and engine, shouldn't they do a decent job with my fans?

Anyone ever try this?

 

[SickBeast]

I've done it, but only after the fan started making lots of noise. It worked for awhile, but I had to keep re-oiling it, so I eventually just gave up and bought a new fan. :brokenheart:

 

[1luckymf]

Why dont you just clean your room??

 

[Jublian]

The more oil or grease you add, the more dust you'll attract. WD-40 is probably too light - you'd probably be best off with a drop of light machine oil. And only a drop! Those puppies hardly need anything and I don't know for sure but automotive lubricants may be too viscous - your fans will wear out even faster due to the added friction coupled with massive dust overdose.

 

[0roo0roo]

wd40 is the problem. its no good for fans. you need machine oil as above. somethings wrong if fans just keep dying like that. even with high dust they tend to survive pretty decent. are they fighting against each other? case ventilation really poor?

 

[Budman]

WD40 is way too thin & motor oil is too thick.

I use Slick 50 One Lube and it works perfectly.

 

[Zepper]

Actually the fan bearings should be sealed - no maintenance necessary. You'd be lucky to get any oil in there. Just set your case up for positive pressure and get some good filters for your intake fans...
.bh.

 

[alexXx]

i would suggest a waxy bike oil. It will semi-dry after a certain amount of time and it still works as oil.

 

[LED]

Graphite or Transmission Fluid work good.

 

[WebDude]

Like Zepper said, the bearings should be sealed. The cheaper fans however have bushings instead of bearings. You could lubricate the bushings to prolong their life, but it's far easier (IMO) to just spend an extra few $ to get ones with quality ball bearings. I've never had a ball bearing fan wear out on me -- had plenty of the bushing fans go south.