Garage door made a loud bang
A loud bang from the garage, followed by a door the opener cannot lift, usually means a torsion spring broke.
from $245parts and labor
Troubleshooting by symptom
What is your garage door doing?
Find the symptom closest to yours below: each page gives the first safe step, ranks the likely causes for doors around Vancouver, WA and Clark County, and names the repair for each one.
Before you touch anything
Keep hands and tools off the springs, the cable drums and the bottom brackets. Spring tension runs through all three, so a loosened bolt or a slipped tool can let the door drop. Looking, listening and pulling the opener release cord while the door is down are safe for anyone; any part that holds tension waits for a technician.
A loud bang, a sagging side, a buckled panel or a door too heavy to lift
These point to a spring that broke, a lift cable that let go or a section the opener bent while it strained, so leave the opener unplugged and let nobody stand or park under the door until a technician has seen it.
Garage door crooked or off its track
A garage door hanging crooked usually has one lift cable that snapped or slipped off its drum, so one corner lost its support.
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Garage door slams shut
A garage door that slams shut has usually lost spring tension, so gravity closes it instead of the springs easing it down.
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Garage door too heavy to lift
A garage door that is too heavy to lift by hand has springs that broke, lost their tension or never matched the door's weight.
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Garage door cable hanging loose
A garage door cable hanging loose has usually come off its drum or snapped, and the springs above it may still hold full tension.
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Garage door panel bent or buckled
A bent top section is usually the opener's doing, pulling on a door that was stuck, locked or never reinforced, while a creased bottom section points to a bumper or a kick.
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The door will not open, close or finish its travel
A door that stalls or turns back can trace to the opener, the photo eyes or a door that has lost its balance, and each page sorts out which.
Garage door will not open
A garage door that won't open most often has a broken torsion spring, and that calls for a spring repair, not a reset.
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Garage door will not close
A garage door that will not close is usually seeing a blocked or misaligned photo eye near the floor, often a two-minute fix.
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Garage door stuck halfway
A garage door stuck halfway has usually lost a lift cable off its drum or a spring, and the opener stopped when the load changed.
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Garage door opener runs but the door will not move
When the opener runs and the door stays put, the door has come loose from the drive, most often through a release cord pulled during an outage.
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Garage door reverses before it closes
A garage door that reverses on the way down thinks it hit something.
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Garage door drifts down or will not stay open
When a garage door won't stay open, its springs no longer carry its weight, most often a pair worn out by years of cycles or springs sized wrong.
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What a grinding noise, a hum or a blinking light means
Grinding and squeaking usually trace to worn rollers and dry hinges, an opener that hums without moving is often straining against a broken spring, and a blinking light most often flags the photo eyes.
Garage door opener hums or clicks but the door does not move
A hum with no movement means the motor is straining against a door it cannot shift, most often because a spring broke.
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Garage door safety sensor light blinking
A photo eye blinks when its beam is not reaching the other eye, because the pair is out of line, a lens is dirty or wet, or sun is shining in.
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Garage door grinding or squeaking
A grinding or squeaking garage door usually has worn or rusty rollers and dry hinges, which new rollers and hinges quiet.
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Garage door opener light blinking
When the opener light flashes and the door refuses to close, the photo eyes are the usual cause: LiftMaster and Chamberlain openers flash their main lights 10 times for a sensor fault.
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Garage door jerks or shakes
A jerky garage door is usually rolling on worn rollers or over a bent or loose track joint, and where in its travel the jerk happens tells you which.
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Garage door opener chain sagging or loose
Some sag in an opener chain is normal, and the makers say so.
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A dead remote or keypad, or a door that moves by itself
Batteries, pairing and the wall control are the first suspects here, and several of the checks take a minute with no tools.
Garage door remote not working
When the wall button runs the door and the remote does not, the opener is healthy and the fault sits with the remote: a tired battery, lock mode left on, or lost pairing.
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Garage door keypad not working
A garage keypad that ignores your code usually has a battery worn down by cold mornings, or the opener is in lock mode.
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Garage door opens by itself
A garage door that opens on its own is getting a signal it believes, most often from a remote pressed in a pocket or car, a shorted wall button, or a keypad with rain inside.
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Garage door wall button not working
When remotes still run the door but the wall button does nothing, the opener itself works and the fault lies on the wired side, in the thin wire or the button.
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Gaps, rainwater, wind rattle and a door frozen to the slab
Rainwater, drafts, a door that drums in the east wind and a door frozen in place usually start with a worn or iced bottom seal, a side stop or a loose strut, and each page covers the fix for wet, windy, freezing Clark County winters.
Gap under or beside the garage door
An even gap under a closed garage door is usually a worn bottom seal, a quick replacement.
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Water leaking under the garage door
Water under a closed garage door usually slips past a worn or torn bottom seal, and a new seal stops it.
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Garage door frozen shut
A garage door frozen shut has its bottom seal stuck in ice on the slab, and running the opener against it tears the rubber or bends the top section.
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Garage door rattles in the wind
A closed door rattles in wind when something that holds it has worked loose: hinge and track bolts, worn rollers, a seal that lifts, or a wide door with too little stiffening.
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Is it the garage door or the opener?
When a spring shows a split in its coils, a lift cable hangs loose or a roller has left the track, the door is at fault; when it looks whole, start with the opener and its photo eyes.
A door fault leaves the opener nothing to do but strain, so unplug it until the spring, cable or track is fixed. Running it can pull a crooked door farther out of line or strip the gear inside the motor.
An opener fault usually leaves the door looking normal. A motor that runs while the door sits still can mean the trolley was released and never reconnected. Remotes that quit while the wall button works can point to the lock setting, and a door that turns back before the floor points first at the photo eyes.
Questions about using these symptom pages
How do I use these garage door symptom pages to narrow down the cause?
Open the page closest to what your door is doing and read its causes from the top, since each page ranks them from most to least likely. Every cause lists the sign that points to it, so compare those signs with what you see and hear. The safe checks take a few minutes, and the repair named under the closest match is what to ask us about.
Which garage door symptoms mean I should stop using the door right away?
Stop after a loud bang, a loose or snapped cable, a door hanging crooked or out of its track, or one that suddenly feels far too heavy. Each one means the springs or cables have stopped sharing the weight evenly. Leave the door down if you can, pull the opener's plug and keep people and cars out from under it. A noise, a dead remote or a gap at the floor can wait for a booked visit.
Which pictures of my garage door symptom should I take before I call?
Match the shot to the symptom: the spring coil after a bang, both bottom corners for a crooked door, the opener label for a hum. For a noise or a door that turns back on its way down, a short phone video with sound shows what a still photo misses. Take every shot from a step back with the garage light on, without touching the parts.
What does the first-step box at the top of each symptom page mean?
It is the one thing to do first for that symptom, before any checks or a call. A box that opens with a bold warning flags a door or opener that can cause harm or more damage if used, so its step is about stopping and keeping clear. A box without the warning covers a symptom that is safe to look into, and its step is a simple first check, such as pressing the wall button.
Want a price before anyone drives over?
Call and describe what the door is doing, or text a photo of the door and the spring above it. You hear the likely repair and where its price starts, then decide.