What's Wrong With My Garage Door?

jimbob12341 wrote: ↑ I got it back on the track and it was fine but now I got a new issue were if I click on it nothing happens. It just hums but door does not move or anything.

Hopefully it's the motor struggling to open the door due to friction. Have you tried lubricating the chain, hinges, wheels, and tension spring?
It is recommended to use a Garage door lubricant, or a silicone lubricant at least once a year.

Can you open the door manually? If so, is the door balanced? It shouldn't weight much and should stay in position when opened half way and you let it go.
Take photos of your main coil spring (above the door) and cables on each side of the door. The cables should be tight.
If all is good here, then you may need a new opener.

I'd try if you can manually pull up the door with the handle, and go from there.

CANbike wrote: ↑ Hopefully it's the motor struggling to open the door due to friction. Have you tried lubricating the chain, hinges, wheels, and tension spring?
It is recommended to use a Garage door lubricant, or a silicone lubricant at least once a year.

Yeah I bought that stuff but have not had time to do it.

engineered wrote: ↑Can you open the door manually? If so, is the door balanced? It shouldn't weight much and should stay in position when opened half way and you let it go.
Take photos of your main coil spring (above the door) and cables on each side of the door. The cables should be tight.
If all is good here, then you may need a new opener.

Yeah we could open manually looked all fine when we opened and closed it.

I will take some pictures of the cables

boyohboy wrote: ↑I'd try if you can manually pull up the door with the handle, and go from there.

Yeah we did that... Though the previous owners destroyed that so had to make my own.

So I went to check the garage again, and now it works again. I really would think it is the that opener button but when it failed before I tried our car remote clicker. I will try to lube everything up tonight and maybe again tomorrow and see if that helps. Really going to hold off on calling someone in until it really does not work as my fear is always if they come and it works they will "throw up their hands in the air and see they can't diagnose it without seeing it fail and then the hand comes out for their payment for showing up".

jimbob12341 wrote: ↑ So I went to check the garage again, and now it works again. I really would think it is the that opener button but when it failed before I tried our car remote clicker. I will try to lube everything up tonight and maybe again tomorrow and see if that helps. Really going to hold off on calling someone in until it really does not work as my fear is always if they come and it works they will "throw up their hands in the air and see they can't diagnose it without seeing it fail and then the hand comes out for their payment for showing up".

If it works fine manually, then that suggests the opener. Was it moving smoothly in manual?

If your wheel was out of the track, either your door is unbalanced on the cables, or your wheels are failing. Or maybe your tracks have been damaged?

engineered wrote: ↑ If it works fine manually, then that suggests the opener. Was it moving smoothly in manual?

If your wheel was out of the track, either your door is unbalanced on the cables, or your wheels are failing. Or maybe your tracks have been damaged?

It seemed pretty smooth, no real trouble doing manually.

It's been like a month since the issue with the track. I chalked it up to extreme cold.

I still might replace wheels anyways not that expensive but not till summer.

Would suck if the opener died after only 12 years thought they would last at least 20.

What brand is the opener? Is it a Mastercraft or Genie (couldn't see clearly in the video)? If so, the limit sensors on each end of the track are junk. They sometimes move along the track just slightly. If the "close" limit switch moved out of alignment enough, the motor doesn't get the "door closed" signal and continues to try and close the door so you hear a hum. My parents had this type of opener and it mostly happened during extreme temp changes.

Some openers have motor capacitors that wear out. When the cap goes bad it just sits and hums like that.

It’s like $30-$50 to replace. It’s fairly easy to do

jimbob12341 wrote: ↑
Would suck if the opener died after only 12 years thought they would last at least 20.

I had to replace my 39 year old Liftmaster (Chamberlain) opener last year when it went dead (relay on the electronics board I'm guessing). Worked fine all that time, wasn't worn out. The only issue I know of in all that time was a spring broken and replaced. I just replaced the opener itself when it failed, left everything else in place

congo wrote: ↑What brand is the opener? Is it a Mastercraft or Genie (couldn't see clearly in the video)? If so, the limit sensors on each end of the track are junk. They sometimes move along the track just slightly. If the "close" limit switch moved out of alignment enough, the motor doesn't get the "door closed" signal and continues to try and close the door so you hear a hum. My parents had this type of opener and it mostly happened during extreme temp changes.

l69norm wrote: ↑Some openers have motor capacitors that wear out. When the cap goes bad it just sits and hums like that.

It’s like $30-$50 to replace. It’s fairly easy to do

No it is a chamberlain, not sure what model.

Got any videos on how to check if this is the case and how to fix if it is the case?

Scote64 wrote: ↑ I had to replace my 39 year old Liftmaster (Chamberlain) opener last year when it went dead (relay on the electronics board I'm guessing). Worked fine all that time, wasn't worn out. The only issue I know of in all that time was a spring broken and replaced. I just replaced the opener itself when it failed, left everything else in place

yeah, that would be my hope. There are some good sales on chamberlain right now but still would not like to have to spend $300-$400 to replace it since like you said you got 39 years out of it, mine is at 12.

If I would have to replace it I would hope that the only thing I need to change is the opener.

jimbob12341 wrote: ↑ No it is a chamberlain, not sure what model.

Got any videos on how to check if this is the case and how to fix if it is the case?



yeah, that would be my hope. There are some good sales on chamberlain right now but still would not like to have to spend $300-$400 to replace it since like you said you got 39 years out of it, mine is at 12.

If I would have to replace it I would hope that the only thing I need to change is the opener.

Chamberlain and Liftmaster are the same company. Btw, While it’s not you current problem, the big thing that goes wrong with these chain driven openers is a little plastic gear that wears out. It’s easy to replace

l69norm wrote: ↑


Chamberlain and Liftmaster are the same company. Btw, While it’s not you current problem, the big thing that goes wrong with these chain driven openers is a little plastic gear that wears out that’s easy to replace

Yep, I found that video going to go up and check what is going on up there. Hopefully if it needs to be replaced it is not too much I did a quick amazon search and I was see like $60 for it, hopefully when I put in the actual model number of the capacitor it will be much lower.

Yeah I will check the gear as well.

Other unplugging any other safety things, I remember with one of my monitors it has this problem, and the bigger capacitor (maybe it was a video on a TV that I was following can't remember anymore) it was recommended not to change it had higher voltage. It does not seem to be the case with this one but just wanted to double check.

Hopefully that will do the trick as in the case of my monitor it is still going strong 12 years later though I wish now it would break lol so I can get a new monitor.

jimbob12341 wrote: ↑ So I went to check the garage again, and now it works again. I really would think it is the that opener button but when it failed before I tried our car remote clicker. I will try to lube everything up tonight and maybe again tomorrow and see if that helps. Really going to hold off on calling someone in until it really does not work as my fear is always if they come and it works they will "throw up their hands in the air and see they can't diagnose it without seeing it fail and then the hand comes out for their payment for showing up".

If it's working fine and you already tested it manually, then I'd probably just leave it be. Maybe it was just frozen to the ground or something. Re lube, do not lube the track, only bearings, hinges, spring

gr8dlr wrote: ↑ If it's working fine and you already tested it manually, then I'd probably just leave it be. Maybe it was just frozen to the ground or something. Re lube, do not lube the track, only bearings, hinges, spring

Yeah we lubed it up all the areas, will see if that helps though I think it could be what other people are saying that it might be a capacitor issue or maybe some circuit issue. I highly doubt it was frozen to the ground as I opened the garage to get inside like 2 minute before and it opened fine, it is just when I went to close it, then it would not work.

A few hours later it worked fine, so I think it has something to do more with the opener than the door itself.