Why does my garage door do this and how to fix it

[thackm]

Why does the door do this and how to fix it? It will not go down consistently and looks like it is bending. I should add it has been working for some time now and only just started doing this in the last 3 days.

 

[NUTTSGT]

It would appear that your door is getting put in a bind.

What has changed to cause this ?

 

[thackm]

Nothing changed, just came home and the door was still up (I thought I had closed it before driving away) and then tired to close it and it did this. Lubricated the rollers and track and it still continues to bind.

 

[Firstram]

Lube the rollers, confirm the spring tension is correct and truss the top of the door. Lowering the opener a little would put less stress on the top panel as well.

 

[DGersic]

Is the top of the door breaking from the strain? I dont think it should be bending like that.

 

[BillK]

Unhook the opener and see how the door opens by hand. Also, the opener does not appear to be installed properly. The part that hooks to the door needs to be lengthened so it is pushing straighter against the door at the bottom of the travel.

I certainly would not operate it any more until you find the problem. It is going to completely ruin the door.

 

[BillK]

Find the instructions for your opener and you will see what I mean by the linkage adjustment.

 

[thackm]

Is the top of the door breaking from the strain? I dont think it should be bending like that.

I think it is starting to break, you can start to see a small bend in the door

 

[firebirdparts]

There's binding and friction and so forth, of course, but it's also geometry. You need more horizontal direction on your link and that would require you to move down the pulley end of the opener or redo your link longer. This is really important now that the door is already sprung. Structurally it's ruined, really.

You could consider that you want the springs set too loose to give the weight more ability to pull it down. If that link was in tension, obviously, you're not bending the door like that.

Wide doors are weak. You can probably save it by adjusting per above and buying a bigger or at least new garage door stiffener. They're pretty common. Should not be a shock to anybody competent that sells garage doors.

 

[DGersic]

Unhook the opener and see how the door opens by hand. Also, the opener does not appear to be installed properly. The part that hooks to the door needs to be lengthened so it is pushing straighter against the door at the bottom of the travel.

I certainly would not operate it any more until you find the problem. It is going to completely ruin the door.

I think the opener is fine, but the way the door is sagging is messing with the travel of the opener. I think it’s also binding the top set of rollers.

 

[DGersic]

I think it is starting to break, you can start to see a small bend in the door

That’s what I suspected. You’ll probably need a new door panel to fix this. That's a wide door, so without reinforcement, it is likely to break again at the same spot.

I had a similar bend / break in mine. I patched it with 2” steel angle. Garage doors are pretty flimsy and easily damaged, especially where the opener yanks on them at the top.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

Wide door and not a very strong one.
Grease the rollers and springs, also check the tension and for any binding.
I'd add an additional strut across the door and move the attachment point on the door down so the opener lifts the door from the closed position rather than pulling straight back.

 

[Jswain]

I wonder if someone tried to get a tool in there and unhook the safety release to break in, and in the process broke that top section of your door.

Or just a crappy install and finally bit the dust

 

[AEAdam]

The door is obviously bent. You need to remove the opener and ensure the door moves freely. Bend it back in place. Then you need to reattach and readjust the opener. It obviously needs to be check at both ends. I think the opener bent the door. Not sure why, but I suspect it’s the link that attaches the opener to the door that’s the root cause.

 

[jstroede]

To me it looks like your operator install was very poor. The arm geometry seems to be way off for low headroom track. The J bar is trying to go like completely vertical when it doesn't appear there is enough space to do so. Usually in low headroom applications, the J bar is going to be shorter and leaned back more.

John

 

[Metal-Marc]

That is one flimsy garage door...

Time for a new door.

 

[firebirdparts]

To me it looks like your operator install was very poor. The arm geometry seems to be way off for low headroom track. The J bar is trying to go like completely vertical when it doesn't appear there is enough space to do so. Usually in low headroom applications, the J bar is going to be shorter and leaned back more.

John

I think part of the idea here is right, but vocabulary is a problem. "leaned back more" isn't really clear enough. The j bar is going vertical and that is bad, bad, bad. More horizontal and you'd have less force available to go the wrong way.

I think shorter is generally a bad thing. and particularly a bad thing in this case. The length of the track will limit just how long you can go, but in this install it would have helped a lot of it had been longer. Longer j-bar would have less force available when it wants to go the wrong way, and more force pushing the door the right way.

one of the things I really like above overhead openers is that the j-bar does have a vertical component that holds the door closed. Right at the end, when the door is shut, that becomes a good thing. On regular rise tracks, the door will drop down quit a bit and the geometry for holding the door closed improves right at the end. When it works correctly I like it.

 

[jstroede]

Heck it looks like it goes past vertical, but maybe it is the angle of the video.

The geometry for low headroom is quite a bit different because you basically have to pull the top section straight away from the wall. You can use a longer J bar like that, but sometimes you have problems getting enough travel to open the door completely because the trolley will hit the stop bolt on the rail.

 

[Dig Doug]

un hook the opener and run it up / down manually a few times
get some garage door Lube / spray - it creeks a lot - spray rollers and chain if it’s a chain drive. Dont spray the belt if it’s a belt drive


There is something going on with your springs they get real skinny in the middle when going down

 

[Dig Doug]

I think you have a broken spring that has bound up on itself.

at that point where it stops and binds in going down - it should just drop down - gravity - the spring controls the drop and aids in the lifting

but the spring is not letting it drop all the way.

if you pull the release and run it manually watch out as the door will drop / roll down uncontrollably- you need to man handle the drop!

don’t get in the way of the door travel

 

[HalfTonTom]

You mentioned lubricating the track. My father did that, and it resulted in jamming because of hardened grease in the track. I don't think you're supposed to lubricate the track, just the roller bearings.

 

[rayra]

Probably metal fatigue and failure / crack in the door panel extrusions, adjacent to were the opener attaches / pulls. Probably induced by a prior undiagnosed problem that increased the friction on the door and stress on the attachment point.
Probably multiple things going on, now.

Seconding the advice to uncouple the opener and manually move the door thru its paces so you can feel where the bind is occurring, so you can investigate further. Door panel wheel pins will almost certainly need lubrication.
Do NOT unbolt the bottommost wheel brackets while the torsion spring is still under tension and the lifting cables are still connected to those bottommost wheel brackets or you will likely suffer a grievous maiming.

Observe all hinges and wheels and movement tracks. You'll find at least one problem.

 

[Gogo300]

Might try a garage door strut. They stiffen the panel and keep it from bending. Our garage door used to do that so we called a garage door repair company. They installed a strut and fixed the problem but my wife was set on getting new doors. They had one piece struts but I found an adjustable one on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0932FLR1F/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Busted Knucles]

Too much spring tension causing the opener to push against the spring to close the door. Put a piece of aluminum angle across the top before the door panel gets creased.

 

[jstroede]

You guys realize the door has a strut on it already right? Plus then you put a strut on the door and now the springs are off. It all has to work together. This door has low headroom track. The top roller basically just moves horizontally. When it starts to bind, the opener is trying to push the door down instead. Unfortunately the top section is already damaged. It can probably be repaired somewhat, but the damage has been done, and will continue to happen until the opener is setup properly for that type of track.

 

[wmihl]

My door had issues this past Spring, nothing like you are having, kept stopping mid close to open back up. People I asked just told me to increase the down force of the motor, but I ended up buying some synthetic spray supplied by Ideal Overhead door. Sprayed the rollers, the axles of the rollers where they go into the garage door hinges, all the hinges and even the springs. The springs can become corroded/rust over time and cause added friction and bind up when operating the door. Fixed my issue and will continue to reapply the lubricant every Spring.

Best of luck with getting your door fixed.

 

[kbuhagiar]

My door had issues this past Spring, nothing like you are having, kept stopping mid close to open back up. People I asked just told me to increase the down force of the motor, but I ended up buying some synthetic spray supplied by Ideal Overhead door. Sprayed the rollers, the axles of the rollers where they go into the garage door hinges, all the hinges and even the springs. The springs can become corroded/rust over time and cause added friction and bind up when operating the door. Fixed my issue and will continue to reapply the lubricant every Spring.

Best of luck with getting your door fixed.

Lubrication is good, but it's always a good idea to disengage the door from the opener and see if the door operates smoothly on its own.

This should be ITEM ONE before any other adjustments (especially down force) are attempted. Otherwise you could make an existing problem worse.

 

[Chris Stapley]

Looks to me like someone tried to forcibly enter it and bent the top section trying to get to the release...

 

[engineer2]

IF you get a jack shaft garage door opener you can solve your problem. Is that an 18 ft door?

 

[Viper98912]

Something else I noticed is that this is a 3-panel garage door instead of your standard 4-panel. With the standard 12" radius tracks, your panels might be too tall to smoothly roll through the tight radius, and they get somewhat jammed in the corner. You may want to consider going to higher radius racks (15" or higher) if you plan on keeping that door, but given that you need to replace at least one panel, you're probably better off just getting a whole new door, 4 panel, with an extra reinforcement at the top so this doesn't happen again.

 

[engineer2]

I replaced the bottom seal on my garage door. It was cold out and the rubber was stiff. It got it to the bottom and would reverse and go back up. I had to heat the seal with an old hairdryer to get it to seat without gaps. The next day it would go back up. I went through the door adjustment procedures and finally got it to work after much trial and error. Chamberlain instructions ****.

 

[Cougar]

Lubrication is good, but it's always a good idea to disengage the door from the opener and see if the door operates smoothly on its own.

This should be ITEM ONE before any other adjustments (especially down force) are attempted. Otherwise you could make an existing problem worse.

Yes,
I did it the other way around.
Increased the down force on a binding door. The result was having to buy new gears.

 

[Jeepster04]

The door is obviously bent. You need to remove the opener and ensure the door moves freely. Bend it back in place. Then you need to reattach and readjust the opener. It obviously needs to be check at both ends. I think the opener bent the door. Not sure why, but I suspect it’s the link that attaches the opener to the door that’s the root cause.

There's binding and friction and so forth, of course, but it's also geometry. You need more horizontal direction on your link and that would require you to move down the pulley end of the opener or redo your link longer. This is really important now that the door is already sprung. Structurally it's ruined, really.

You could consider that you want the springs set too loose to give the weight more ability to pull it down. If that link was in tension, obviously, you're not bending the door like that.

Wide doors are weak. You can probably save it by adjusting per above and buying a bigger or at least new garage door stiffener. They're pretty common. Should not be a shock to anybody competent that sells garage doors.

This. The opener is putting too much downward force on the door and overtime, its caused the door to fatigue which lead to this. Probably exacerbated by the top section having windows. Another brace and a properly adjusted opener may work. Since the top section is sagging so much, it may be done.

 

[Zeke]

Something else I noticed is that this is a 3-panel garage door instead of your standard 4-panel. With the standard 12" radius tracks, your panels might be too tall to smoothly roll through the tight radius, and they get somewhat jammed in the corner. You may want to consider going to higher radius racks (15" or higher) if you plan on keeping that door, but given that you need to replace at least one panel, you're probably better off just getting a whole new door, 4 panel, with an extra reinforcement at the top so this doesn't happen again.

You're right. I didn't even notice the 3 panels. I prefer 5 over 4 for this very reason.

That door makes a lot of racket too. Something or everything is binding. Why it won't go all the way down before the arm goes over center is the crux of the problem. This may have been said already above. Cables wrapped on top of each other?

So hard to diagnose when you can't be right there at each side to watch.

 

[rlwood1963]

If you don't know what you are doing call an overhead door professional it may just save you having to loose a finger or limb or even possibly your life, garage door springs are dangerous at best and although I have never had any problems working on them I did purchase the proper rods to adjust them using 3/8th extensions is stupid and dangerous and all these people telling you to do this or that are not doing you any favors hell ask how many of them are willing to come help you fix the door, if you live within 50 miles of Omaha I will come fix it for free.

 

[logical]

The J bar needs to be longer so it can't get to vertical and overrun the door. I have 8 foot tall doors and both openers have a track extension kit so there is enough travel.

The cheap options are 1) if you have short vehicles just lengthen the bar and live with a shorter opening. Don't forget to reposition the close limit trigger....or 2) you might get the extra room you need by adding a few 2x6 blocks to the wall where the track attaches, relocating the opener that same 3 " back and lengthening the bar 3 9r 4 inches