Why Won’t My Garage Door Open?
Heard a loud bang recently? It’s probably a broken spring. No bang? Work this checklist from easiest to most serious.
Two causes cover most of these calls
A garage door that won’t open is usually a broken spring or a dead opener, and a two-minute look tells you which. If you heard a loud bang from the garage in the last day or two and the door now feels impossibly heavy, that’s a broken spring. If the motor doesn’t make any sound at all, start with power.
Either way, don’t keep hitting the button. Running the opener against a broken spring can burn out the motor, bend the top panel, or pull the door crooked in its tracks. Thirty seconds of looking saves a second repair.
The five-minute checks, safest first
Work down this list in order. The first three take under a minute each:
- Check the power. Is the opener’s light on? Check the outlet, the breaker, and whether a GFCI tripped. Also confirm the wall console’s lock or vacation mode isn’t on.
- Try the wall button and the remote. Wall works, remote doesn’t: dead remote battery. Remote works, wall doesn’t: wiring or console issue.
- Look at the spring above the door. A torsion spring with a two-inch gap in the coil is broken. Along the tracks, a dangling extension spring is the same answer. Don’t touch it.
- Listen to the opener. Motor hums but nothing moves: stripped gear or the door is dead weight from a broken spring. Motor silent with power on: board or capacitor.
- Pull the red release and lift by hand. Disconnect the opener and try the door. Smooth and light means the opener is the problem. Heavy or stuck means the door is. Stop if it’s heavy.
The loud-bang scenario
A snapping spring sounds like a gunshot in the garage, and it always seems to happen when the door is closed and your car is inside. The spring was doing 90% of the lifting, so with it gone the door weighs its true 130 to 400 pounds.
The rules are simple. Don’t run the opener. Don’t try to lift the door alone; if you must get a car out, two adults on the door with the opener disconnected, and only if it moves freely. And never attempt the spring yourself. Torsion springs store enough energy to cause severe injury, and this repair injures DIYers every year. Full breakdown: can you use a door with a broken spring? What the fix involves: spring replacement.
When the motor is the problem
If the door lifts smoothly by hand with the opener disconnected, the door is fine and the opener needs attention. Stripped drive gears are the most common opener repair we run, and you’ll often find white plastic shavings under the motor head as evidence. Logic boards fail after lightning storms, which San Antonio gets plenty of. Capacitors die in garage heat.
All of these are repairable, and openers over 15 years old sometimes make replacement the smarter spend. Either way we diagnose it in front of you before quoting anything: opener repair and installation. Car trapped right now? Contact Summit Garage Doors. Serving Stone Oak, Timberwood Park, and the North Side.
FAQ
Why won’t my garage door open even though the motor is running?
A running motor with a stationary door usually means one of two things: a broken spring, so the opener is trying to lift the door’s full weight and can’t, or a stripped drive gear inside the opener, so the motor spins without moving the chain or belt. Look for a gap in the spring coil first, then plastic shavings under the motor head.
I heard a loud bang and now my garage door won’t open. What happened?
That bang was almost certainly a spring snapping. Springs are under extreme tension and fail with a sharp report like a firecracker. With the spring gone, the door weighs its full 130 to 400 pounds, which is why it won’t budge. Don’t run the opener or force the door. Spring replacement is a pro job, usually done in one visit.
Can I open my garage door manually with a broken spring?
Carefully, with help, and only if necessary. Pull the red release cord to disconnect the opener, then two adults lift together, keeping hands out of the section joints. The door will be very heavy and won’t stay up on its own. If it binds, tilts, or a cable is slack, stop immediately. A jammed door can drop.
Why did my garage door remote stop working all of a sudden?
Start with the battery; it solves most remote failures. Next, check whether the wall console’s lock mode is on, which disables remotes. If the wall button is also dead, the opener has lost power or the logic board has failed, often after a power surge or lightning storm. Breaker and outlet checks take a minute and cost nothing.
How much does it cost to fix a garage door that won’t open?
It depends entirely on the cause, from a free fix like a tripped breaker or lock mode to a spring or opener repair. Nationally, most homeowners pay between $150 and $350 for spring replacement, parts and labor included. That’s a typical US range, not a Summit quote. We diagnose in front of you and quote the full price before work starts.
Your garage door won’t wait. Neither do we.
We keep same-day openings when the board allows. Either way: diagnosis first, written price second, then the fix.