What's this part from my CPU cooling assembly (and do I need to replace it)?

[Fox of the asterisk]

So I was thoroughly cleaning my CPU fan/heatsink assembly for the first time in ever (since, you know, thermal paste and it's hard to clean properly while attached to the mobo) and as I was doing so this mysterious part came out.

I've no idea what this is, or whether it's important. I didn't see a matching one in the other side, so for all I know it's a foreign object that fell in at some point and has been scraping against the fan blades (it WAS a very noisy fan). Does anyone recognize it? Is it something important that I'll need to replace (or more likely replace the full cooling assembly)?

If it helps, here's pictures of the fan and CPU. I don't recall who I got the fan from and it doesn't appear to have that documented; it may have just come with the CPU, I don't know.

 

[Robert Cook]

that is a stock CPU fan, it is for the best to get a new one. get the hyper 212 evo.

 

[BSOD BSTD]

it appears to be a part of the heatsink retention bracket. unscrew the fan from the heatsink and remove the bracket and see if it will 'fit' anywhere on the bracket

 

[Fox of the asterisk]

Yeah, problem with that: the fan doesn't attach by screws but by clips, and I'm afraid I'll damage them if I try to remove it. Otherwise I'd have done that already. So, would you think it's important enough to justify that risk? (I mean, worst case, I have to replace it with what is probably a better fan, but I wasn't planning on a $30 expense from this.)

 

[BSOD BSTD]

if the heatsink and fan have reattached firmly then you can continue to use it for now. give the heatsink a tug to check that it is secure. I would however recommend getting a new cooler, the heatsink is secured to the mboard under high tension so you don't want it 'pinging' off inside the PC. You should be able to pick up a shitty replacement stock cooler for less than $15, check on ebay etc.