Start with the two small lights at the bottom of the door tracks. When a garage door goes down, stops, and goes back up, the safety sensors are the usual reason, and they take two minutes to check. If the sensors look fine, work down the list. Stop at step 5 if anything points to a spring or a cable.
1. Check the safety sensors
There is one sensor on each side of the door, a few inches above the floor. They send a beam across the opening, and the opener will not close the door unless that beam is unbroken.
Look for a light that blinks or is off on either sensor, one sensor knocked lower than the other, and dust or cobwebs on the lenses. Wipe both lenses with a soft dry cloth, then nudge the sensors until they point straight at each other. When both lights stay solid, try the door again.
Afternoon sun is a real problem here. A sensor that faces west can be blinded by direct sunlight, so the door closes fine in the morning and refuses at 4 p.m. Shading that sensor usually ends it.
2. Look for something in the way
A broom handle, a bike tire, a bag of potting soil past the threshold line: anything in the beam or under the door will stop it. Check along both tracks too. Debris in a track can make the door bind and reverse on the way down.
3. Read the opener's light
If the light on the opener blinks in a pattern after the door reverses, that is a diagnostic code. The codes mean different things on different brands, so look up your opener's model number (it is on a label on the motor unit) and check the manual before you guess.
If you hear the motor run but the door does not move, skip ahead to step 5.
4. Make sure the door is not locked
Many doors have a slide lock or a bar on the inside. If it is engaged, the opener cannot move the door. Slide it all the way back. Some wall buttons also have a lock or vacation setting that turns off the remotes, which can look like a door that won't close from the car.
5. Check the springs and cables, from a distance
If the door starts to close and then slams down fast, or reverses the moment it moves, a spring or a lift cable may be broken. A torsion spring sits on a bar above the door; a break usually shows as a visible gap in the coil. Cables run up both sides of the door.
Do not try to close or lift the door by hand if you see either problem. The springs hold the weight of the door under a lot of tension, and a door with a broken spring is heavy and can drop. This is the point to call us.
6. Heat
Summer in the Valley is hard on the parts. Metal can warp, sensors drift out of line, and openers can shut off for a while when they overheat. If the door works early in the day and fails in the late afternoon, heat is a good suspect.
When to call Open Sesame
Call if the door still will not close after you have cleaned and lined up the sensors, if a spring or cable looks damaged, if the door hangs crooked, or if you hear grinding or popping as it moves. Open Sesame has been fixing garage doors across the Phoenix metro since 1989. Call (602) 375-2159, or see our off-track door repair and spring replacement services.
