Garage door off track or cable broken
A door that's hanging crooked, has rollers popped out of the track, or has a cable dangling loose is a door to leave alone until a technician looks at it. Off-track doors can fall, and forcing them usually bends panels and tracks, turning a moderate repair into a bigger one.
What you might be seeing
- One side of the door is higher than the other
- Rollers have come out of the vertical or horizontal track
- A lift cable is loose, frayed, or has come off the drum at the top corner
- The door jammed partway and the opener stopped
- Panels are bent or a section is buckled after the door hit something
What causes it
- A broken spring or cable. When one side loses support, the door twists and pulls rollers out of the track. A snapped spring is often the root cause.
- Hitting something. Backing into the door or closing it on a car, bike or trash can.
- Bent or loose tracks. Mounting bolts loosen over the years, and tracks get bumped.
- Worn rollers. Cracked or seized rollers can jump the track.
- An opener pushing against a stuck door. If the door binds and the opener keeps going, something gives.
What to do right now
- Stop using the opener. Unplug it if you can do so safely.
- Don't try to force the door up or down, and don't stand under it.
- Don't touch the cables, drums or spring hardware. They can be under heavy tension.
- Keep people and pets out of the doorway.
- If the door is stuck open, secure what you can inside the garage and tell the company it's a security issue when you call.
What a good repair includes
A technician will usually secure the door, release tension safely, reset or replace the cables, realign or replace bent track sections and rollers, and then balance and test the door, including the opener's auto-reverse. If panels are badly damaged, they may talk to you about replacing sections or the whole door.
Preventing it next time
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends checking your door and opener every 30 days: use the manual release, lift and lower the door by hand to confirm the springs are working, and check that hardware keeps the door on track (CPSC). Loose bolts, fraying cables and noisy rollers are easy to spot before they cause a failure. See our garage door safety checklist.