Fan is failing on 6th Generation Airport Base Station

No

I had the same problem with my time capsule (A1470). The fan would kick into high gear several times a day and then eventually it began to squeak and then the fan died. I took the Airport apart and left if running with out the case in case that would be cool enough. Look at iFixit for a rough guide on taking it apart.

Eventually my Time Capsule would overheat and reboot.

So I removed the fan and googled for a replacement. The only ones I could find were in China and would take a month to arrive. That wouldn't do, so I googled on repairing this kind of fan, but all that I could find said that you can't repair them. Well, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I opened up the fan and applied a little oil on the spindle of the fan and put it back together. First I tried WD-40, but that only worked for a few minutes. Then I used some oil that I had lying around that came with an electric shaver.

I've been running it for 24 hours and so far so good. It's still doesn't have the case and I can see that the fan runs continuously at a low speed. It hasn't kicked into high speed mode and it hasn't sent any warnings about overheating to the Airport Utility running on my desktop.

I cautiously optimistic that it has been fixed.

I purchased my AirPort Extreme on 6/30/15 and it took awhile to figure out it was my AirPort that was making noise. It was a high pitch screeching noise as well as heating up. I finally got an appt. to take it to the Apple store 15 mos. after purchase and they said it was of warranty, not repairable, and for another $169.oo I could replace it. I didn't have AppleCare and that would've been another $200+ It's obviously defective as it doesn't seem to be such a common problem. It's frustrating to not be able to get it repaired for it's not a cheap product for me. So Apple wants me to spend more for an extended warranty than the cost of the product?

Applecare on an Apple TV will cover the Airport.. it should come out a lot cheaper than $200.

You can simply purchase the Apple TV 3.. plus its Applecare... then get them to replace the AE .. then return the unopened Apple TV for refund.. so you will end up paying just the applecare on the AppleTV.

Check to make sure it is still considered legit.. but since they do not provide applecare directly for the Airport routers I see this as effectively the same thing.

Otherwise you will need to take the advice of others here and open the Airport and replace the fan.