My garage door won’t close – How to find the cause

Confirm that your garage door opener has power.

If your garage door won’t close then confirm that you have active power to your garage door opener.

Yes! I know what your thinking. You just opened your door so you have power. Sorry, but that’s a bad assumption.

Most garage door openers have an internal fuse that is most likely to blow when you press the button to startup up the motor. So it’s worth it to take a few seconds to confirm that the motor still has power.

You may also want to confirm that the fuse box for the house has not been tripped off for some reason. Fuses can trip suddenly and starting up your motor can be a cause. So it is worth checking.

Yes, the lights in your garage are still working but they are on a different circuit breaker.

If the breaker switch has been flipped then proceed with caution. The internal wiring on your motor may be the cause of the problem. If in doubt then leave the motor unplugged and have an electrician check it out. Bad wiring on a garage door opener can start an electrical fire that can get nasty real quick.

My garage door won’t close, lights blinking on the motor.  

What to do if you are pressing the button on your remote control or wall button and your opener light is blinking, but your motor is making NO attempt to run.

Turn off the opener at the powerpoint for at least 15 seconds then turn it on again. Wait a further 5 seconds then try using your remote control or wall button to see if the motor runs the door.

The main circuit board on the opener could have a logic lockup that prevents the drive motor from being activated. Turning off the power allows the circuit board to reset its settings.

On a sectional or tilt door, take a look at the carriage to see if it is pulled up hard against motor body.

Check to see if the carriage is pulled up hard against the stopper bolt.  ( controll a door-4 by B&D)

In both of these situations the sensor system assumes the door is jammed and it will refuse to let the door run. This problem can be hard to fix because there may also be an issue with the up limit stop switch.

On a roller door, Check to see if the door is pulled up hard against the stoppers at the top of the curtain guides. Both situations could be causing the motors sensitivity system to be activated which prevents the motor from running.

In this case it is best to call your garage door repairman because you may cause serious damage if you try to fix the problem yourself.

My Garage door won’t close, moves a little bit then stops

What to do if you are pressing the button on your remote control or wall button and your opener light is blinking, and your door is trying to move but stops. (usually moves less than 100mm)

On a sectional door, check to see that all your doors wheels are in the tracks. Check to see that your doors cables are wrapped around the cable drums and not the torsion bar.

After checking these potential issues try pulling the bottom of the door down gently as you activate the motor with your remote handset.

If your overhead sectional door motor is an ATA securelift GDO-2 then your internal motion sensor wheel (chopper wheel) is not lining up with the motion reader.

This component is a safety device that tells the circuit board if the electric motor is actually running or not. If your door travels about 30cm then goes back up again then this is the most likely cause of the problem.

You may also notice that your motor sounds rough and loud when going down but smooth and quiet when going up. Another telltale sign that the internal motor shaft has worn out its bearing.

With this motor being as old as it is it’s better to spend the coin on a new one than waste a couple of hundred dollars having this repair done. 5 years ago I would have gone for the repair but most of these motors are now nearing the end of their life cycle.

On a tilt door. Your door might be jamming in the opening. In this case you might be able to gently help the door down as you activate the motor with your remote handset.

Your tilt door might also be opening too far causing excessive resistance when you activate the motor.

When a tilt door starts to close, the top of the door should be moving forward and up simultaneously.

If it looks like the top for the door tries to go forward and down then the door is opening too far or the motor is mounted too high.

Try pushing the top of the door up gently to help the motor work through the resistants as you press your remote handset to start the motor.

On a roller door. Your door is likely jamming in the top of your tracks and auto reversing.  Try pulling the bottom of the door down gently as you activate the motor with your remote handset.

If pulling on the door doesn’t help then you need to look to your motor as the cause of the problem.

I can hear the motor running but the door won’t close.

Check to see if you can move your door by hand. If you can then you need to look for two potential causes.

If you can’t move your door by hand then your motor may have seized  internally and is making a humming sound that gives the impression that it’s running.

On a sectional door you need to look at your drive chain or belt to see if it is moving. If it is then your door has disconnected itself from the motor. Try reconnecting the manual override.

If the drive chain or belt is not moving then you have a broken motor and it will likely need to be replaced.  

For roller doors your motor may have slipped into manual override. Once you have taken the steps to reconnect the motor then try running it again. Alternatively you may have broken gears or a broken clutch system.

My garage door goes down halfway then goes back up again.

Roller door – Your curtain guides (tracks) should be clean and clear. Check your tracks for tackiness or visible signs of aggressive rubbing near the point where the door wants to stall out.

If your tracks feel even a little tacky then you may need to give them a clean with degreaser.

Another neat trick is to blast your tracks with talcum (baby) powder. Talc is a dry lubricant that will soak up the sticky stuff while reducing friction in your tracks. It’s messy and not easy to get it in there but it works like a chalm.

Your roller door could be conning. In order for your door to move freely in the tracks it needs to roll up straight. As your door goes up it rolls around itself at the top.

The side edges of each layer of the roll need to be in line with the previous layer. If you curtain is running off to one side this is called conning. When this happens the door will generally rub aggressively against the inside of one of your tracks.  

Your tracks could be out of alignment. Generally speaking, your curtain guides (tracks) will be mounted parallel to the edge of the door when fitted by the installer. (although there are legitimate exceptions to this)

Over time the door will loosen up and start to move to one side or another and rub in the tracks. This means that your tracks may need to be adjusted to compensate for the doors behaviour.  

It’s very tempting to try and bypass this type of problem by spraying lubricant into your tracks buy you really need to have the door looked at by a service technician. And you should never spray oil in your tracks anyway. In time it will only make the problem worse.

Your doors internal hubs may need lubricating. Inside the top of your door there are several large drum wheels that hold the door to the central shaft and give the door that roller door shape.

The drum wheels are spaced out evenly inside the door and the shaft passes through the center of each drum wheel. There are no bearings involved in this fitting so grease is used to provide lubrication.

Over the years the grease breaks down or mixes with dust and the drum wheels aren’t able to run freely around the central shaft.

A good way to test for this is to bring the door to the ground and put it in manual mode. Go to the center of your door and try moving it up and down. If it feels stiff then you know you have a problem.

Sectional door – observe the door to insure that it is level , cables may have become uneven, cable may have popped of the cable drum and wrapped around the torsion shaft. This is a dangerous situation so call the garage door repairman because there is a deeper reason why this happened.

Look for obstructions. All too often a wheelie bin or another object can be catching the door as it’s going down.

Try lubricating your wheels bearings. If the wheels have no bearings then flush out the hubs where the axle goes into the wheel.

Check to see if the motor shaft feels sticky. The carriage that runs along the shaft can get stuck if dust and old lubricant mixes over time. Especially if your motor in an ATA GDO-2 because the thicker diameter shaft causes extra drag on the carriage.

Worn carriage can act like a brake on the shaft. The black carriage, that runs along the motor shaft ,can wear down from friction. When this happens the carriage can pinch on the shaft and act like a brake.

Tilt door – Tilt doors have large power arms, fitted with springs at the back, that lift your door. Along the length of the power arms you will see a pivot point where the arm is mounted to thick steel plate (guide plate). One of these will be on each side of your opening and they are anchored to the front wall of your garage.

Some of these pivot points are fitted with bearings and others are a pressed fitting. If you have a press fitting you may need to lubricate the joint with oil or grease. At this point you should also take the time to do a thorough visual inspection for signs of wear.

Inspect the guide plate for signs of contact by the power arm and lubricate if needed. Also lubricate all the other pivot points you can see.  

My garage door hits the ground then goes back up again.

If it looks like your motor is forcing the door into the ground and going back up again then there are a few reasons that his might be happening. This is referred to as ‘Grounding’.

Your Concrete floor may have lifted so look at that. Floors will often lift in the center of the garage opening. You may also see the floor lifting on the side as well.  

This can also be seasonal as building and concrete move, or expand and contract, depending on environmental factors. Even if your house is 30+ years old it can still move. If this is the reason then you will need to adjust your down stop limit to compensate for the floor.

Worn Cables  may be causing the door to hit the ground unevenly causing the safety system to be triggered.

Sectional doors are fitted with wire cables on both sides of your door. If one of them is worn then it causes the door to hit the ground with force on one side. Naturally this triggers the safety system and the door will auto reverse.  

If you see signs of wear on your cables then you will need to get them replaced. Don’t put this off as things can get nasty very quickly when you have cable issues.

The limit switch that stops the door when it has reached the desired close position may have changed.

This causes the door to travel down beyond the desired stop position. When this happens the motor thinks the ground is an obstacle and auto reverses.

For some motors this is something that happens very slowly over time and for others (particularly ones that have manually cam set limits) it can happen suddenly.

Adjusting you limits can be really easy or really hard depending on your motor and your knowledge of how to make the adjustment.

To be honest it is usually one of those things that’s best left to your garage door repairman.

My garage door closes most of the way then goes back up again

On Sectional doors- The most common reason I see for this situation is binding torsion springs. If you haven’t had your door properly serviced in a long time than your springs may have a buildup of surface rust.

Rust significantly increases the friction between the coils and will cause them to seize up, preventing your door from making it to the ground.   

Spray your springs with an oil based lubricant and try running the door again.

Look for obstacles, something may have slipped between the front wall and the tracks.

Make sure all of your wheels are in the track and the axles are sitting in the hinge mounts.

Your door may be rubbing against the front wall. Sectional doors overhang your opening a few inches on each side to limit the draft and make everything look tidy when the door is down.

What most people don’t notice is that when your door is closing it also moves forward a bit as well. This is done to reduce the gap between the door and the front wall.

How we do this is by mounting the bottom of the vertical trac closer to the wall than the top of the vertical track. The hinges on the back of your door are also designed to assist with this action.

During the original installation we get the door super close to the wall giving you a snug fit. However, if you can see rub marks on your wall or on the front edge of your door then your door is now making contact with the wall.

To fix this problem the bottom of the vertical track will need to be moved away from the wall so that the door can travel all the way down without making contact with the wall.

Rubber draft seals –  Some older doors are fitted with rubber draft seals. Over time draft seals will get dry and stiff. As your door goes down it also moves forward and presses up against the seal with increasing force.

During warm weather this is usually less of a problem because the rubber tends to remain flexible enough to not be a problem.

There are a few things you can try to reduce the friction between your door and the seals.

Try spraying your draft seals with some lubricant. Silicone spray is the better choice for this then run your door to see if that improved the situation.

If that doesn’t help then you might have to adjust your vertical tracks so the door isn’t making contact with the seal.

Of course if neither of those solutions solves the auto reversing problem then you will need to look for another cause.

Rubbing aggressively against the inside of the track especially where the small mounting bolts are fitted. Sectional door tracks will usually have a mounting bracket fitted 200 – 300mm from the ground.

If your door alignment is out or if the tracks were fitted a little too tight then the bottom wheel of the door might be hitting the rounded head of the mounting bolt.  In some cases this disturbance will be enough to trigger your doors auto reversing feature.

Roller doors- What most people tend not to notice is that the curtain of a roller door will often shift sideways near the closing point. This is common on most single car doos and some older double car doors.

If you pay attention to your door, as it goes down, you may see that the door moves to the opposite side to which your motor is mounted. This is not unusual but it can cause problems over time if your door starts to rub hard in the bottom of the track.

While this is a sign that your door needs attention by repairman you can often overcome the issue for now by gently pushing down on the door as it reaches this point.

By now you should have a good idea why your garage door won’t close.

Feel free to add a comment below or call The Garage Door Repairman if you need to book a home visit.