Corsair AF140 Ticking Noise

[MikaelRs]

So I've been having this issue now for a week or so and yesterday I wen't to diagnose it, the main suspect was my Hyper 212 Evo, so I tried plugging it out and booting to no avail, the sound still persisted so I plugged it in again, after trying each fan I came to a conclusion that it was one of my Corsair AF140s that made the sound, so I screwed it out and took it out of the case, after this I went downstairs to show my dad the fan and explain the problem, so he grabbed it and spun it e.t.c and while he was doing that I noticed a click sound that happened when the fan was upside down (outtake) and he shook it, so now I'm wondering if maybe I should make them intake and try that. To add to that I discovered after taking out that fan that the noise persisted but for a shorter period of time and at a lower volume.

Before I did this the noise would go on for 30 minutes before disappearing now it only lasted for 10 seconds.

To add to injury the fan was plugged into CPU optional and now my Hyper 212 has to work harder making it just as noisy as before.

The case is a Fractal Design Define R5 Windowed and it had 5 fans before (now 4) of which 3 where AF140 and the other 2 where the included FD fans

4 of these fans where plugged into my mobo (Asus Maximus IX Hero) in 3 of which where plugged into CHA-1 to 3 and the other one in the CPU-OPT plug.

The last fan is connected to my ASUS Strix 1080Ti OC and only turns on after the GPU hits 60C.

The AF140s where all plugged into the mobo and the one above the heatsink was plugged i to CPU-OPT. All of them where exhausts (top and back) aswell as the Hyper212.

The FD fans are intakes and are at the front, one of which (bottom) is plugged into the GPU.

All of them are set to Standard airflow in the BIOS.

As of right now the system runs stable without it but I am worried that the same might happen to other 2 fans.

And I'm not stupid, the fan screws are tightened and theres nothing in the way of the fan.

Any suggestions are a huge help, thanks!

[WoodenMarker]

Where was the original fan with the problem mounted?

If it was mounted horizontally and facing down, it could've caused the bearing to wear out more quickly.