Fault diagnosis

Garage Door Won't Open: What to Check First

A garage door that won't open is usually one of three things: a broken spring, a stripped drive gear inside the opener, or no power reaching the motor. The quickest way to tell them apart is to pull the emergency release and try lifting by hand. A door that will not budge points at the counterbalance; a door that lifts easily points at the opener.

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Safety first: If the door will not lift by hand after you pull the emergency release, stop. A dead-weight door means the counterbalance has failed, and a torsion spring stores enough energy to break bones. Do not put a car jack, a prop or your shoulder under it, and keep children and vehicles out of the opening until it has been assessed.

What causes it

These are the causes we find most often, in roughly the order we check them.

  1. 1

    Broken torsion or extension spring

    The springs, not the motor, carry the weight of the door. A 90kg sectional door only lifts because the spring is doing almost all of the work. When a spring snaps, the motor is suddenly asked to lift the full weight, hits its force limit within a few centimetres and stops.

    What you can check

    Look at the shaft above the door opening. A torsion spring that has failed shows a clean gap of about 50mm in the coil. On a tilt or extension-spring door, look for a spring hanging slack on one side. Look only, and do not touch or adjust anything.

    What we do

    We replace springs in matched pairs, sized to the measured weight of your door and the drum diameter, then re-balance so the door holds still at waist height. High-cycle springs are worth the small extra on a door that runs six or more times a day.

  2. 2

    No power at the opener

    Openers plug into a ceiling power point that is easy to knock or switch off, and a wet winter storm will trip the RCD at the switchboard. With no supply the motor is dead, the courtesy light is out and nothing responds to anything.

    What you can check

    Look for the opener's status light or courtesy light. If it is dark, check the ceiling power point is switched on, plug a lamp or a phone charger into it, and check the RCD and circuit breakers at the switchboard.

    What we do

    Where the fault is inside the opener, such as a blown fuse on the board, a failed transformer or a perished lead, we repair or replace it. If the fault is upstream in the house wiring we tell you straight and refer it to a licensed electrician rather than guess.

  3. 3

    Stripped drive gear inside the opener

    Sectional openers drive through a nylon gear that meshes with a steel worm on the motor shaft. The nylon is the sacrificial part by design. Once the teeth shear you get a whirring motor, no travel at all, and often a scatter of white plastic swarf under the opener head.

    What you can check

    Run the opener and listen. A motor that spins freely with no chain or belt movement, plus white plastic dust on the floor beneath the unit, is a stripped gear. Confirm by watching whether the trolley moves along the rail at all.

    What we do

    We fit a replacement gear and sprocket kit, re-grease the worm, and work out why it failed. Nine times out of ten a tired spring has left the door heavy and the gear has been overloaded for months. Fixing the gear without fixing the balance only buys a few weeks.

  4. 4

    Door still locked or bolted

    Plenty of Perth garages still carry a manual lock bar or a slide bolt in the track from the days before automation. If the bolt is thrown, or a centre T-handle has been turned, the opener pulls against a locked door and stops on force.

    What you can check

    Look at the inside of both vertical tracks, about a metre up, for a slide bolt shot into the track slot. Check the centre T-handle if the door has one. Slide the bolts back and try again.

    What we do

    We remove or disable redundant lock bars on automated doors so they cannot be thrown by accident, service the lock if you want to keep it for manual use, and fit a proper deadlocking opener where security is the real concern.

  5. 5

    Opener trolley left disengaged

    The red emergency release cord uncouples the door from the opener carriage so the door can be moved by hand in a power cut. If the cord has been pulled and never re-engaged, the motor runs the carriage up and down the rail while the door stays exactly where it was.

    What you can check

    Look at the carriage on the rail above the door. If the arm running down to the door is hanging free of the carriage, it is disengaged. Pull the release cord back towards the door and run the opener once, since most units re-latch automatically.

    What we do

    We re-engage the carriage, replace release cords that have perished or snapped, and inspect the trolley body for cracks. Worn carriages that will not hold the latch are replaced rather than nursed along for another six months.

  6. 6

    Snapped lift cable jammed on the drum

    Steel cables run from the bottom brackets up to grooved drums on the torsion shaft. A frayed cable that lets go wraps around the shaft or bunches on the drum. The door binds hard on one side and neither the motor nor a person can shift it.

    What you can check

    From a safe distance, look at both cables. A cable off its drum, birdcaged, or hanging in a loop is obvious from the floor. Do not reach in and do not try to lift the door, because the load on the remaining side is uneven and unpredictable.

    What we do

    We take the tension off under control, fit new galvanised cables of the correct length and gauge, re-seat both drums and re-square the door. Cables are always replaced in pairs, because the second one is the same age as the one that failed.

When to stop and phone someone

Check the power point, the release cord and the lock bar, because those are all safe to do yourself. Anything past that means springs, cables or the inside of the opener, and both carry real risk. Call now and we will get a technician to you today, with no call-out fee and a 12-month warranty on parts and workmanship.

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Other faults that look similar

Questions

Garage Door Won't Open — questions we get

My garage door won't open but the motor makes a noise. What is that?
That is the opener working while something else is not. Most often the nylon drive gear has stripped, the trolley has come off the carriage, or a spring has broken so the motor cannot lift the weight. All three are common and all three are same-day repairs.

How do I get my car out if the garage door won't open?
Pull the red release cord hanging from the opener rail, then lift the door by hand. If it rises and holds at the top, drive out and leave it open until we arrive. If it will not move or feels like dead weight, do not force it and call us instead.

How long does it take to fix a garage door that won't open?
Most repairs take 45 to 90 minutes on site. A pair of torsion springs is usually about an hour, a drive gear kit about the same, and a power or wiring fault is often quicker. We carry the common parts in the van so most jobs finish in a single visit.

Is it worth repairing an old opener or should I replace it?
If the opener is under about twelve years old and the fault is a gear, a board or a capacitor, repair is usually the cheaper call. Past that, parts get scarce and a second failure is likely. We give you both figures on site and let you decide.

Still not sure what is wrong? Phone 0482 911 999 and we will talk it through.

Same-day service

Garage Door Won't Open? We can be there today.

Describe what the door is doing and we will tell you the likely cause, the likely price, and when we can get to you.

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  • No call-out fee
  • Fixed price before we start
  • 12-month warranty

No call-out fee. Ever.

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