Your garage door spring is broken if you heard a loud bang from the garage, the opener hums or lifts the door a few inches and stops, and you can see a gap in the coil of the spring above the door. Any one of those is reason to stop using the door. Leave it closed, stop pressing the opener button, and do not try to lift it by hand: without the spring, you are lifting the whole weight of the door. Then call for garage door spring replacement.
The rest of this page covers each sign, how to tell which kind of spring your door has, what to do while you wait, and what the repair involves.
Signs Your Garage Door Spring Is Broken
1. You heard a loud bang
A spring stores the energy that lifts the door. When it snaps, that energy lets go all at once, and it sounds like a gunshot or something heavy falling in the garage. A torsion spring is wound tightest when the door is closed, so it can break with the door down and nobody using it. If the door stopped working after a bang, look at the spring before anything else.
2. The opener hums, strains, or lifts the door a few inches and stops
The spring does the heavy lifting. The opener is built to move a door that the spring already balances. With a broken spring, the opener is trying to lift the full weight, and its safety limits stop it after a few inches or before the door moves at all. Stop pressing the button: every attempt strains the motor and its gears, and can turn a spring job into a spring and opener repair.
3. There is a gap in the spring coil
Stand inside the garage with the door closed and look at the steel shaft above the door. A broken torsion spring shows a clear gap where the coil has separated, and the two halves may have unwound away from each other along the shaft. This is the surest sign of all, and you can check it without touching anything.
4. The door feels very heavy
A balanced door lifts by hand with little effort, about 10 to 15 pounds. Only check this with the door fully closed: pull the red release cord to disconnect the opener, then lift the door a little. If it feels like 100 pounds or more, a spring has broken: set it back down, leave it closed and call. Skip this check entirely if you have already seen any of the signs above, and never do it with the door open or partway open (see what to do right now below).
5. The door opens unevenly or hangs crooked
On a door with two springs, one weak or broken spring lets one side rise faster than the other. A crooked door can also mean a lift cable has come off its drum, which can happen when a spring breaks and the cable goes slack. Either way, stop using it: a crooked door can bind in its tracks and come out of them. A cable that is slack, frayed or off its drum is a job for cable repair.
6. The door drops fast or slams when it closes
The springs hold the door's weight on the way down as well as on the way up. If the door now comes down faster or harder than it used to, the springs are no longer carrying their share.
7. On extension springs: one spring hangs slack, or a piece dangles
Extension springs run above the horizontal tracks on each side of the door. A broken one sags compared with the other side, or leaves a snapped end hanging. Each should have a safety cable running through its middle so a broken spring stays on the cable. If yours do not, keep clear: Amarr warns that a broken extension spring can send pieces flying around the garage.
A spring that is wearing out usually gives earlier hints too: new creaking or popping, a door that feels heavier than it used to, or an opener that sounds strained. The garage door noise guide covers what each sound means.
Torsion or Extension: Which Springs Does Your Door Have?
Look at the wall above the closed door.
- Torsion springs: a steel shaft runs across the width of the door, with one or two tightly wound springs on it and a cable drum at each end. The springs twist as the door closes and turn the shaft to lift it. A broken one shows the gap described in sign 3.
- Extension springs: there is no shaft. The springs run alongside the horizontal tracks above your head and stretch as the door closes. A broken one hangs slack or dangles, as in sign 7.
It matters because they are different parts with different hardware, and the repair is quoted by type. The spring replacement page shows both kinds, with recent spring jobs on each.
What to Do Right Now
If the door is closed
- Leave it closed and stop using the opener. Do not press the button again to see if it works.
- Disconnect the opener only if you need to, and only now. With the door fully closed, you can pull the red release cord so nobody runs the opener against the dead weight. Do not lift the door any further than the quick check in sign 4.
- Do not park anything under it or plan to get the car out until the spring is replaced.
If the door is stuck open or partway open
- Do not pull the red release cord. With a broken spring, a released door can drop the moment it is disconnected.
- Do not try to lower the door by hand, alone or with help. You would be holding its full weight with nothing to stop it.
- Keep people, pets and cars out from under it.
- If the release cord has already been pulled, do not try to move or reconnect the door. Keep everyone out from under it and call.
If a car is trapped, or the door will not close for the night, that is an emergency call: emergency garage door repair has the terms and the hours. My emergency checklist walks through the other things to rule out first.
Whatever position the door is in
Leave the spring hardware alone. Do not loosen brackets, cables, bolts or set screws, and never try to unwind a spring. Torsion springs store enough energy to cause serious injury, which is why replacing a spring yourself is not a DIY job.
What Spring Replacement Costs
The price depends on the type of spring, the size and weight of the door, and whether one spring or both are replaced. The current price range, and recent spring jobs by town and month, are on the garage door spring replacement page. Every repair is also on our full price list. You get the exact price in writing before any work starts. Town pages cover the same service locally, for example spring replacement in Andover and spring replacement in North Andover.
Replace Both Springs at Once
If your door has two springs and one broke, replace both. They went in together, so the one still working has the same age and the same number of cycles as the one that failed, and it is worn the same way. Doing both now saves a second visit when it goes. Extension springs are replaced in pairs as well, with a safety cable through each one.
How Long Garage Door Springs Last
Springs are rated in cycles: one cycle is the door opening and closing once. Amarr rates standard residential springs at 10,000 cycles, which works out to about seven years at four cycles a day. DASMA Technical Data Sheet 190, from the door and opener manufacturers' association, lists what shortens that life after a spring leaves the factory: rust, a spring that does not match the door's weight, weight added to the door later (paint included), a door left open for long stretches in harsh weather, and springs that are not lubricated as the door maker's instructions say. The arithmetic for your own door is in How Long Do Garage Door Springs Last?
Think a spring has broken? Call Murray's Garage Door Services at (978) 758-0690 or book online, and see garage door spring replacement for prices and recent jobs. If the door is stuck open or a car is trapped, go straight to emergency garage door repair.