fans are so important to keeping your
computer in good working order sometimes
it needs a good cleaning other times it
might need a total replacement if it's
about that time for you you've come to
the right place because today I'm going
to show you how to remove the fan in
your 13-inch MacBook Air
hi I'm Gwendolyn with iFixit and for
this repair you're going to need a p5
pentalobe screwdriver a spudger and a t5
Torx screwdriver I have all the tools I
need and I also have my magnetic mat
it's not listed as one of the required
tools but I never do a repair without it
it helps me stay organized and keeps me
from losing important parts today I'm
working on an early 2015 version of the
MacBook Air while some of the steps are
very similar to other versions of the
MacBook Air always follow the step by
step guide for your specific machine you
can find all the guides on ifixit.com
these guides not only walk you through
the complete repair but you can also see
comments and notes from other users who
have followed it to help you when you do
your repair let's get started first
things first make sure your computer is
completely turned off and disconnected
from any power source then flip your air
over so we can tackle the back panel to
do that we're going to unscrew the
pentalobe screws holding it in place
there are 10 screws total but there are
two that are right under where the
display meet the case that are a
different size so make sure you separate
those from the rest on your magnetic mat
when you take them out
now you can pull the lowercase off with
your fingers before we go any further
we're going to disconnect the battery
Apple made this part easy for us by
adding a plastic pull tab pull it
towards the front of the air to
disconnect the battery from the logic
board but make sure you don't pull up
and damage the connector now that the
battery is disconnected and the air is
de-energized let's move on to the fan
right next to the fan you'll see the i/o
cable connector it's attached to the fan
with a little light adhesive and
connected to the board underneath we're
going to disconnect the side closest to
the fan on the i/o board with our
spudger and then peel it away from the
fan then disconnect the other side of
the cable from the logic board and
remove it from the air
now we have a clear view of the fan zip
connector so let's unlock the retaining
clip and move on to the rubber gasket
the rubber gasket is secured to the top
of the fan with some light adhesive
we're going to use our hands to peel
that up from the fan but we don't need
to remove it from the computer
completely now there's only three things
standing in our way from removing the
fan three different sized t5 screws make
sure you make note of which grew came
from which hole so you can get them back
in the right place once they are removed
you can take the fan out of the air
removing the pan will also disconnect
the fan ribbon cable so just be careful
not to snag it for reassembly we
recommend you follow the step by step
guide on ifixit.com in Reverse or you
can watch the MacBook Air reassembly
video on our channel you can find all
the parts and tools you need for this
and many other repairs at ifixit.com and
let us know how it goes you can find me
on twitter at Gwendolyn gay or follow I
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