Garage Door Spring Broke? What to Do — and What Not to Touch

Signs your spring broke

• A loud bang from the garage, often when nobody was using the door. People describe it as a gunshot or something heavy falling.
• A gap in the spring. Look at the spring on the bar above the door. If you see a two-to-three-inch gap between the coils, it has snapped.
• The door barely lifts, or the opener strains and stops. The springs carry the weight of the door, not the opener. Without them, the opener is trying to lift 150 pounds or more of steel on its own.
• The door goes up crooked or the cables hang loose at the bottom corners.

What to do right now

1. Stop using the opener. Every press of the button strains the motor and gears against a weight they were never built to lift. A broken spring can quickly turn into a broken opener too.
2. Unplug the opener so nobody in the house hits the button by habit.
3. If the door is closed, leave it closed. That is the safest position for it.
4. If the door is open, keep everyone — kids, pets, cars — out from under it. Do not pull the red emergency release cord. With no spring holding it, the door can drop the moment it is released.
5. Call for a repair. If your car is trapped inside, tell whoever you call. A same-day visit is usually possible.

What not to touch

Torsion springs are wound under enormous tension. Unwinding or adjusting one without the right winding bars and training is how people end up in the emergency room. Do not loosen the set screws on the spring cones, do not try to wind a spring with screwdrivers, and do not try to lift a heavy door by hand on your own.

Online videos make it look easy. The people in them have done it hundreds of times with the right tools.

Why we usually replace both springs

Most two-car doors have two springs that were installed on the same day and have gone through the same number of open-and-close cycles. When one breaks, the other is usually close behind. Replacing both at once means the door stays balanced and you are not calling for a second repair a few months later. If a single spring is the right call for your door, we will tell you that too.

How long a new spring lasts

Springs are rated in cycles, not years — one cycle is the door opening and closing once. How often your household uses the door matters more than how old the spring is. Every spring we install carries a 10-year warranty.

What a spring repair with us looks like

We start with a free 25-point inspection of the whole system, because a snapped spring is often not the only tired part. You get one price in writing before any work starts, and that is the price you pay — if we find something else that needs fixing, we fix it at no extra cost.

Related services

• Torsion Spring Replacement
• Torsion Spring Pair Replacement
• Extension Spring Replacement
• 24/7 Emergency Garage Door Service

More from the blog

• Garage Door Won't Close? 5 Things to Check, Safest First
• Why Is My Garage Door So Loud?
• Garage Door Balance Test: How to Check Your Door in 2 Minutes