Troubleshooting

Common Garage Door Problems and What Causes Them

Not sure what's wrong with your garage door? Match your symptom below to its likely causes, the checks that are safe to try, and the point where a technician takes over.

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All Problems

Each page below covers the likely causes, the checks that are safe to try yourself, and the signs that mean it needs a tradesman. Anything involving a spring or a lift cable under tension is never a DIY job — garage door spring repair explains why. Rather skip the diagnosis? Book a repair and we'll find the fault on site.

Garage Door Motor Not Working or Not Responding?

When a garage door motor is not working or not responding, the sound it makes tells you the fault. Silence with no light points to power: a tripped RCD, an unplugged unit or a failed transformer. A hum with no movement usually means a stripped drive gear or a failed capacitor, so the motor is energised but can't drive. A single click and nothing is typically the logic board or a seized motor. And a motor that strains, moves a little and gives up is often not a motor fault at all: the door has become too heavy because a spring has broken. An opener repair and a replacement supplied, fitted and programmed are quoted side by side once we know which part has failed, so you can weigh one against the other.

Garage Door Off Track?

A garage door goes off track when its rollers are forced out of their guides, most often after the door closes onto an obstruction, takes a knock from a car, loses a cable so one side unloads, or wears its rollers flat until one jumps out. The door then leans, binds and can fall. Stop operating it immediately: every further attempt bends more track and can pull more rollers out. Re-seating the door, straightening the rails and replacing damaged rollers is quoted once we have seen the damage, and most jobs are finished in a single visit. If a cable let go as part of the failure, that is re-rigged and quoted with it.

Garage Door Remote Stopped Working?

If your garage door remote is not working, press the wall button first: if the door responds there, the door and opener are fine and the fault is in the remote or the receiver. Change the battery, then try re-pairing the remote with the learn button on the opener's powerhead. If a fresh battery and re-pairing both fail, the usual culprits are a full memory on an older opener, a failing receiver board, or LED lights and other electronics drowning out the signal. Replacement remotes are supplied and programmed on one attendance, and that attendance covers as many remotes as you need, with the price confirmed before we start. If the wall button doesn't work either, the problem is the opener, not the remote.

Broken Garage Door Spring or Cable?

A broken garage door spring announces itself with a loud bang and leaves the door far too heavy to lift, because the spring, not the motor, carries almost all of the door's weight. A broken cable instead leaves the door hanging crooked, with one side lifting and the other dragging. Both are under serious tension and both are dangerous to work on without winding bars and training. A single spring, a matched pair and cables are each quoted supplied and fitted, with the price confirmed before any work starts. Springs are rated in cycles rather than years, so a door that runs many times a day wears them out sooner, and salty coastal air pits the steel and shortens their life further.

Garage Door Stuck Halfway Open?

A garage door stuck halfway has usually hit something mechanical rather than electrical: a roller out of its track, a cable that has slipped its drum so one side sits higher than the other, a spring that has lost tension so the door gets too heavy past a certain point, or an obstruction or bent rail at the exact spot it stops. Openers also stop mid-travel when their force limits are set too tight or the drive gear is stripping. Stop running the door. A half-open door with a failed cable or spring can drop, and repeated attempts turn one bent part into several. Re-seating the door and straightening track, re-rigging a cable and replacing a spring are separate jobs, each quoted after diagnosis and before any work starts.

Garage Door Won't Close?

If your garage door won't close but opens fine, the cause is nearly always the safety sensors: the two photo-eyes near the floor that must see each other before the opener lets the door come down. Block, misalign, dirty or disconnect that beam and the door reverses while the opener light blinks. Start by wiping both lenses and clearing the beam path, then check both sensor lights are steady rather than blinking. If that doesn't fix it, the sensors, their wiring or the opener's board need attention, and that repair is quoted before any work starts. The other causes are travel limits that have drifted and a real obstruction in the tracks. Don't bypass the sensors: they are what stops a closing door landing on a child, a pet or a car.

Garage Door Won't Open?

If your garage door won't open, it is almost always one of five things: a snapped spring (the door is suddenly far too heavy for the motor), a failed opener or drive gear, a remote that has lost its pairing or battery, the manual release left disengaged, or the door jammed in its tracks. The quickest way to tell is to disengage the motor with the door fully down and try lifting by hand. If it won't budge or feels enormously heavy, the spring has gone and that is a spring replacement. If it lifts easily, the fault is the opener or the remote, which means a motor repair or a new remote programmed to your opener. Whichever it is, you get the price before any work starts. Never force a door that won't move: with a broken spring, the full weight is unsupported.

Noisy Garage Door? What Each Sound Means

A noisy garage door is telling you which part is wearing, so match the noise to the cause. Squealing and screeching is dry rollers, hinges or bearings. Grinding is worn rollers or an opener straining. Rattling is loose hardware: hinges, brackets and track bolts working free through vibration. Chain slap is a loose opener drive. Popping or groaning as the door starts moving points at the springs. One loud bang is a spring letting go, and that isn't a noise problem at all. Most noisy doors are cured by a service plus whatever parts are needed, which lubricates, re-tensions, re-balances and tightens everything; worn rollers are the part most often replaced with it. A door near the coast gets noisy sooner, because damp and salt attack bearings and spring steel.