Noisy Whirlpool ART 700UK…fan problem????

I have an american style Whirlpool Art 700Uk non ice dispenser model, bought from Comet about 7-8 years ago, the 5 year guarantee has since expired.

I have never had any problems until recently, Looking more closely at the unit, the noise appears to be coming from the fan?

I removed the fan blade to clean it and noticed there appears to be about 1/4 “, maybe 5-6mm of for/aft play in the fan spindle.

It doesn’t move from side to side, just back and forth. Is this an acceptable ammount of play?

I spent a good while vacuuming the front and rear, there was some fluff. The compressor wasn’t overly hot but warm to the touch.

Ideally I would like to turn the unit onto it’s side to get to the fluff on the grills in the centre, is this possible or am I likely to cause more problems?

I read one suggestion on this board to turn the thing off for 48 hours and start again?

Any thoughts, greatly appreciated..Tks.