is my fan leaking oil?

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polonyc2

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I took apart my old E8400 CPU recently and after removing the Noctua NH-U12P CPU fan I noticed several oily/greasy areas all around the fan edges...it looked like oil was leaking...never saw this before on any fan I removed...was the fan damaged?...any risk of it leaking on the motherboard?

 
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yup looks like it was. shouldn't effect the board since its oil and not water. i'd email noctua and see if you can RMA it.
 
I've already replaced the entire cooler...but I got another Noctua and am worried that it's a defect with their fans and will happen again
 
I wouldn't worry about seeing this sort of defect again. Failure rate on simple mechanisms like bearings are low.
 
Oil from the fan bearings would never show up on the tip of a single fan blade without showing up on the paper on the hub. Whatever lubrication is in the fan bearings are located in the fan's hub area. If it came from the bearings there would be dark streaks from the hub outward.

You may have some fluid inside your PC, but it didn't come from the fan bearings.
 
blivit4 said:
Oil from the fan bearings would never show up on the tip of a single fan blade without showing up on the paper on the hub. Whatever lubrication is in the fan bearings are located in the fan's hub area. If it came from the bearings there would be dark streaks from the hub outward.

You may have some fluid inside your PC, but it didn't come from the fan bearings.
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where exactly is the 'paper on the hub'?...you mean where the Noctua label/writing is?

can't see where else it could have come from...only spots I see any grease/oil is on the fan area itself...system was built a year ago and never had any issues with the system either...only noticed the oil when I was taking the system apart to build a new PC (with almost entirely new parts)
 
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Maybe a big bug flew in to the fan blades and got splattered all over lol
 
Looking at the amount of yellow gunk on the paper towel that you have the fan sitting on, to me that looks far too much gunk for it to come out of a fan.

Do you not have anything else in your pc that is that colour ?

Heatpipe cracked open maybe ???
 
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EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Looking at the amount of yellow gunk on the paper towel that you have the fan sitting on, to me that looks far too much gunk for it to come out of a fan.

Do you not have anything else in your pc that is that colour ?
Click to expand...

that pic is a bit misleading...the large yellow spot under the fan is not oil (Pic 1)...it's the pattern of the tablecloth the fan is resting on (it's actually a yellow flower lol)...so the oil is only on the fan itself

Kaos_Drem said:
Odd question, but what did it smell like?
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don't think it had any particular smell...the fan with the oil is my CPU cooler fan and not any of my other 5 case fans...I thought it was the fan bearings but now I'm not so sure
 
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