Nikon Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4D IF-ED Lens squeaking

Ive been looking at several of these listing online and I have noticed that a lot of them have a AF Squeak , Is this something to be concerned about? I don't mind a tiny squeak when Im not paying new price but at the same time I don't want something that's going to go bad either.

AF-S squeaking is usually the precursor to AF motor failure, but the process may take a few years.

Yeah I was wondering if this was a problem with this lens, Seems like there's a lot of them that do this, now I am a little hesitant to pick one up.

There are certain lenses where this seems to be a problem, and in particular it seems-in my experience-to crop on a lot of roughly turn of the century AF-S designs(or lenses with an aperture ring) like the 17-35 f/2.8 and 80-200 f/2.8 AF-S in addition to the 300mm f/4.

 

Some of these can seemingly squeak for years without a problem, while others will fail soon after they start to squeak(or even fail with no squeak).

 

I personally wouldn't buy one that squeaks as you are rolling the dice, but you may be fine with years of nothing more than your camera sounding like there's an angry mouse inside of it.

I had to replace the AFS motor in a 300/4 AFS, was not cheap. I don't remember much squeaking before failure, but it has been a while.

 

The 17-35/2.8 I have squeaks a little initially if I don't use it for a while. It has had the AF motor replaced once by previous owner.

 

Has anyone heard of chronic AF motor failure on gen 1 300/2.8 AF-S? I have one of those that works extremely well, really don't want to upgrade that lens. Have not seen much evidence of regular failure of the 300/2.8 AFS lens, unlike the AF-I predecessor that seems to show up as failed regularly on ebay.

I'm sure no one here would even think of it,

 

BUT PLEASE DON'T PUT OIL ON IT :eek:

80-200 f/2.8 AF-S

Yup, mine squeaked for the first few minutes in an outing, but once it had gone from near to far and back again a few times it was fine. lasted for years like that.

 

Equally, I've had af motor failures on both my AF-S 500mm and 600mm f4s. Both un-repairable......:(

My AF-S 300

squeaked for the first few minutes in an outing, but once it had gone from near to far and back again a few times it was fine. lasted for years like that.

Dieter, that's brief and to the point.....:D

...or you could photograph a few rock concerts. Shouldn't hear much after that.

I bought my AF-S 300/4 used about 10 years ago. After sitting mostly unused for a few years it started squeaking. Now, if I run the AF about 20 or 30 times with a lens cap on, which makes it cycle all the way through the AF travel, the squeak eventually disappears, and doesn't return until the lens has been unused for a week or 2. I will be fine if the AF motor dies and I can still manually focus the lens. If the AF motor jams manual focus when it fails, I'll be displeased.

I bought that AF-S 300/4 used, and wound up replacing the motor in it after a couple of years of use. Yes, it started to squeak, and slowly got worse. Wound up having APS in Chicago fix it, for about $400 as I recall. That fix lasted until I sold it a few years ago. Mine had a s/n in the 7000s as I recall, so it had to be one of the first. Taking it to photograph elephant seals on windy sandy beaches multiple times didn't help in the longevity. My two cents--stay away, unless its priced low enough that you can regard it as a throw-away lens. On the other hand, what great optics! It clearly punched above its weight in that regard.