Find your symptom. Some of these cost you nothing.

Door will not close, and the opener light blinks Try it yourself

The most common call we get, and often the cheapest to solve. A blinking opener light after a failed close almost always means the safety sensors are unhappy.

1. Look at the two small sensors near the floor on each side, no more than six inches up. One should show a steady light, the other a steady light of a different colour depending on brand.
2. Clear anything in the beam path. A bin, a bike wheel, a coiled hose, a broom leaning in the corner.
3. Wipe both lenses. Dust, a spider web, or sun glare on the lens will do it.
4. If one light is off or flickering, the sensors are out of alignment. Loosen the wing nut, move the bracket by small amounts until the light goes steady, then tighten.
5. Check the wires at each sensor and along the wall for a staple through the insulation or a break.

Still blinking after all five? Call us. It is usually a failed sensor or a wiring break inside the wall.

You heard a bang like a gunshot, now the door will not lift Stop and call

That sound is a torsion spring breaking. Look at the bar above the door opening. If you can see a gap of a couple of inches in a coil that used to be continuous, that is it.

• Do not use the opener. The springs carry the weight of the door, not the motor. Forcing it burns out the opener and can pull the door off its track.
• Do not try to lift the door by hand. With a broken spring you are lifting the full weight, 150 to 350 pounds on a typical double door.
• If your car is inside and you need it out, call and say so. It changes how we schedule you.

Why springs break and how to read yours →

Door starts down, then reverses on its own Try it yourself

Work through these in order.

1. Sensors. Same checks as the blinking light above. This is the cause more often than not.
2. Something on the track. Look along both tracks for a bolt, a stone, or a bent section. Watch the rollers as the door moves.
3. Close force set too low. Openers have a down-force adjustment, usually a dial on the back of the motor. Small changes only. If the door needs a lot of force to close, the real problem is balance, and turning up the force hides a fault that is about to get worse.

A door that reverses because it is heavy has a spring or roller problem. Turning the force up defeats the safety system that stops a closing door on whatever is underneath it.

Grinding, metal on metal Stop and call

Rollers or bearings, and you have days to weeks rather than months. Steel rollers wear until the stem grinds in the hinge, and a failed bearing puts load somewhere it was never meant to go.

Keep using it and a roller stem shears, which usually takes the door off the track and turns a small job into a large one. Nylon rollers cost little and cut the noise sharply.

A rattle that has got worse this month Try it yourself

Usually loose hardware. A door shakes itself apart slowly over years of cycles.

1. With the door closed, run a socket over every visible bolt on the hinges, brackets, and track supports. Snug, not forced.
2. Lubricate hinges, rollers, springs, and bearings with a garage door lubricant or white lithium grease. Not WD-40, which strips the lubricant already there.

This is the cheapest visit you will ever book if you want it done properly, and the one that prevents the expensive ones.

Door is crooked, or hanging out of the track Stop and call

Stop using it now. A door off its track is held up by less than it looks, and it can come down.

• Do not run the opener, in either direction.
• Keep people and cars out from under it.
• If it is partly open and you can do so safely from the side, leave it where it is rather than forcing it.

Door drops fast instead of lowering Stop and call

A cable has failed or a spring has lost its tension. The door is no longer counterbalanced, and the next cycle can bring it down hard. Stop using it and park outside until it is looked at.

Remote stopped working Try it yourself

1. Try the wall button. If that works, the opener is fine and the problem is the remote.
2. Change the remote battery. Most remotes take a coin cell and it is the answer more often than people expect.
3. Reprogram the remote to the opener. The learn button on the motor unit starts the pairing.
4. If the wall button also fails, check that the opener has power and that the lock function on the wall console is off. A locked console ignores every remote.

Remote works at the driveway but not inside the car Try it yourself

Range problems usually come from interference rather than a weak remote. LED bulbs in the opener are the most common cause, since many cheap ones broadcast noise across the same frequency band. Swapping to bulbs rated for garage door openers fixes it in most cases.

Other causes: the antenna wire hanging from the motor is tucked up or cut, or a nearby device on the same band is drowning it out.

Door opens on its own Stop and call

Treat this as a security problem first. Common causes are a stuck wall button, a remote wedged in a bag or a car seat, a shorted wire, or an older opener without rolling code security that a neighbour's remote can trigger.

Openers made before the mid 1990s used fixed codes. If yours is that old, the fix is a replacement, and it is one of the few times we recommend replacing rather than repairing.

Power is out and the car is inside Try it yourself

Every opener has a manual release, a cord with a red handle hanging from the trolley.

1. Close the door first if it is open. Pulling the release on a raised door can let it drop.
2. Pull the red handle down and back toward the door. That disconnects the trolley from the opener.
3. Lift by hand. A balanced door with working springs lifts with two fingers. If it does not, stop, because something else is wrong.
4. To reconnect, pull the handle toward the opener or run the opener once until the trolley clicks back on.