It happened. The left fan on my Macbook Pro stated making a horrible noise, so terrible i couldn’t stand it one second. I tried opening my mac and cleaning the fan with compressed air but the noise was still there. 

 

 

 

   

The only thing to do was change it. Off I went to ifixit.com and I bought a new fan with a couple of other things also, a new battery and a new superdrive since mine failed to calibrate the laser power. The invoice was pretty expensive (107$ for shipping ARG)! Warning: This procedure voids the warranty.

 

So off we go with changing the fan. To open your MacBook Pro you’ll need a small cross screwdriver and a torx 6 screwdriver, while you’re there you’ll also might want to clean the other fan of just the inside with compressed air.

 

 

 

mac and parts

Open your mac by unscrewing the screws on the back, the bottom, the left side, the right side, the ones in the RAM compartment (torx 6 there) and the ones in the battery compartment towards the front of the mac. Once you unscrewed everything gently remove the top cover by inserting a flat head screwdriver in the gap between the body and the top panel and turn the screwdriver vertical, lift gently but don’t pull or you’ll break your keyboard. Disconnect the keyboard connector by lifting it before removing completely the top panel.

Now unscrew the screws circled in the picture below. Don’t remove the one on the right holding the speaker part together, just unscrew it. Remove the power supply cable of the fan by pushing is out (it’s a bit hard) and the connecting cable the crosses over the fan by lifting the two brown end, the cable will just slip out from underneath the ends.

  

It’s time to remove the yellow tape where needed and lift the other cables that cross over the fan. Now cut with a pen knife the black tape holding the fan to the air gird, it’s just need so the air doesn’t blow trough the gap. Lift the fan up and pull towards you, it’s a bit hard because the fan is glued to the floor, but don’t worry you won’t break anything keep pulling until it comes off.

 

You may now want to clean the air shaft before inserting the new fan as it gets cluttered bad with dust, use your compressed air for this.

 

Insert your new fan and put some black pate to cover the gap between the fan and the air shaft as it was when you opened your Mac. Screw back the part where the speaker is, connect the fan to the power and connect back the connecting cable removed before. 

And you’re done! That’s it! I will now continue explaining how to change the superdrive unit.

 

I assume your mac is open. Unscrew as shown in figure, then gently lift a bit and pull towards you. Gently so you don’t break the superdrive connector. Now unscrew from the old superdrive the metallic supports and screw them on the new unit.

 

  

 Screw everything back in palce and you’re done! Happy new mac!

 

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