My Sempron PC (which is my server that I leave at home while I'm at college) had a fan in the PSU that would make grinding noises. Since I needed this PC to run 24/7 unattended, a bad fan wasn't acceptable, and I didn't have time to order a new fan. Luckily I had a spare case fan (blue LED Rosewill one) lying around. After a quick soldering iron job, the old PSU fan was out and the LED fan was in, closed up the PSU and tested, works fine. However, I decided to try to fix the old fan (sure, it's only like a $1 or $2 fan, but repairing it would be good and it would be a good thing to have a spare fan for later).
I took off the sticker and removed the plastic cover and then plugged the fan into the PSU. I then wiped the inside clean, removing the old oil and debris that was in there. After cleaning, I got some grease and put inside the fan, then turned it on. I used a small screwdriver to push the grease around the spinning washer so it could go into the motor. This seemed to stop the vibration from the fan, but it slowed down considerably, limiting airflow. After a while, it started vibrating and making noise again. I repeated the process, pushing more grease in and cleaning off excess. Hopefully that will fix it, because I put the fan back together.
Has anyone else ever attempted to clean or repair a fan? What is the best way to fix them? The other fan in the PSU also is probably going to go soon, as it was making slight clicking noises (not loud enough to be worth replacing though).
Repairing/Reconditioning a case/PSU fan 
Linear Mode
