Safely clean and oil a fan

The right fan in my Macbook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2010 is noisy. Many tutorials I find on google tell me to clean and oil the fan, and to do so I should take off the plastic fan. However, I believe these tutorials are for older Macbook Pro models, because when I tried this with my Mid 2010 model I couldn't get the fan off easily, and I was afraid that if I would force it it would break off.

So: can I safely take out the plastic fan in order to clean and oil it without breaking it?

I wouldn't oil it.

Clean it or replace it.

Go to ifixit.com and get instructions specific to your model.

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Used to remove, clean and oil fans in Mac Pro days, but with a laptop do as mrplow suggests. May well be cheaper, and safer, in the long run. Use canned air to give things a good blow out whilst doing the fan job.

Replace it. I replaced my fan on a MBP 13 when it started to make noise back in February. Ordered it on Ebay for $7-$10 free shipping. Took off the bottom cover. Removed 3 screws -- I think... and the connector. All quiet since.

Agree replace it, you can grab a can of air and blow it off, but when it starts making noise the dust has already gotten to the bearings and should be replaced. Also, it is a whole lot cheaper to replace the fan then to replace the logicboard once a drop of oil moves it's way off the fan.