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Garage Door Won't Close?
It opens fine but refuses to close, and the opener light blinks at you. That is almost always the safety beams doing their job, and it's one of the smaller repairs a door can need.
Quick Answer
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.
Common Causes
Safety beams blocked or misaligned
A bin, a bike wheel, a coiled hose, or a bracket knocked out of line. The beam has to be unbroken and the two eyes pointed at each other.
Dirty or fogged lenses
Dust, cobwebs and salt film build up on the lenses over months, especially in Mandurah garages that sit open on breezy afternoons. Our garage door sensor troubleshooting guide shows how to clean and realign them.
Afternoon sun blinding a sensor
Low westerly sun straight down the beam floods the receiving eye until it can't pick out its partner. The door closes fine all morning and refuses late in the afternoon.
Perished or chewed sensor wiring
Thin wire runs along the wall at skirting height, where it gets nicked, stapled through, sun-perished or gnawed.
Travel and force limits drifted
If the opener thinks the floor is lower than it is, it meets resistance early and reverses, reading it as an obstruction.
A real obstruction or track fault
Sometimes the door is right. A stone in the track, a bent rail or a seized roller stops travel and the safety system reverses as designed.
What You Can Check Safely
Safe to check yourself
- Wipe both sensor lenses with a dry cloth and clear anything in the beam path
- Check both sensor lights: steady is healthy, blinking or dark means misalignment or no power
- Gently square up any sensor that has been knocked, then test again
- Watch whether it fails only at certain times of day, which points to sun glare
- Look along the tracks for a stone, screw or bent section at the point it stops
Do not attempt
- Do not tape, bridge or unplug the sensors to force the door shut; that disables the only thing watching the doorway
- Do not increase the opener's force setting to push through resistance
- Do not run the door repeatedly against an obstruction; you will bend track and strip the gear
When to Call a Technician
Call a technician straight away if any of the following apply:
- Lenses are clean, the beam is clear, and the light still blinks: time for garage door sensor repair
- A sensor light stays dark, so no power is reaching it
- The wiring is visibly perished, cut or chewed
- The door reverses partway with nothing in the way
- It only closes if you hold the wall button down
Recommended Services
Get Help With This Problem
Prefer to call? 0476 156 953Door stuck open overnight?
An open garage is a security problem, not an inconvenience. Hold the wall button down to close it in constant-pressure mode if your opener allows it, then call us. Outside our published hours we attend emergencies, with the after-hours rate agreed first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Start with the safety beams, because they cause most of these. Clean both lenses, clear the beam path, and check each sensor's light is steady. Realign any sensor that has been nudged. If the light still blinks after that, the fault is in the sensors, their wiring or the opener's board, and we quote that before putting it right. If the door reverses partway rather than refusing to start, look for an obstruction in the tracks or drifted travel limits instead.
Because the opener can't prove the doorway is clear, which isn't the same as it being clear. A misaligned or dirty photo-eye, a broken wire, or bright afternoon sun hitting the receiving sensor all produce exactly this. West-facing Mandurah garages get the sun version often, and the giveaway is that the door closes perfectly in the morning.
Then look past the alignment. A lens can be aligned and still dirty or fogged, a wire can be broken inside its insulation, and a sensor can fail without looking any different. If the beams are healthy, the cause is often the down-travel limit or force setting, which makes the opener reverse when the bottom seal meets the floor, or a stiff spot in the tracks. A worn roller dragging at one point does the same thing.
Because the opener needs power to drive the door and to run the safety beams. To close it by hand, pull the manual release with the door fully open, lower it slowly and evenly, then lock it if it has a lock; our guide to opening and closing a garage door manually goes through it. If your opener has battery backup and still won't close, the battery may be flat or past its life.
Most openers will close in constant-pressure mode: hold the wall button down continuously and the door comes down, on the understanding that you're watching the doorway yourself. It's the legitimate way to secure the garage while you wait for a repair. Never tape the sensors together or bridge them out; that leaves the safety system permanently defeated on a door heavy enough to injure someone.
It depends on what the beams need. Realigning and testing is the smallest version of the job, rewiring a chewed or perished run is more involved, and replacing the pair of sensors more again. A full auto-reverse safety test is included either way. If the opener's board turns out to be the real culprit, that's a different repair, and we tell you which it is, and what it costs, before doing any work.
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