Your garage door stopped working. Maybe it will not open at all. Maybe it goes up a few inches and then stops. Maybe it starts closing and then reverses back up on its own. Whatever is happening, it picked a bad time — because garage doors in Winnipeg never seem to fail on a warm May afternoon. They fail at 7 in the morning in February when it is -28 outside and you need to get to work.
The good news is that most garage door problems that show up as a door not opening or closing come down to a handful of causes. Some of them you can fix yourself in under ten minutes. Others need a technician. This guide walks through all of them in order, starting with the simplest things to check and working toward the more serious issues.
Quick check first: Before going through the full list below, pull the red emergency cord hanging from the opener rail. This disconnects the door from the motor so you can lift it manually. If the door lifts easily by hand, the problem is with the opener. If it feels extremely heavy or will not budge, the problem is most likely a broken spring.
1. Check the Obvious Things First
A lot of service calls turn out to be something simple. Run through this list before assuming anything is broken.
Power to the opener
Check that the opener unit is plugged in. It sounds basic but outlets get switched off, cords get pulled loose, and breakers trip. Test the outlet with another device to confirm it has power.
Remote battery
A dead remote battery is the cause of roughly one in three calls we get about openers not responding. Replace the battery with a fresh one and try again before anything else.
Wall button test
Try the wall-mounted button inside the garage. If the wall button works but the remote does not, the problem is with the remote — the battery, the programming, or the antenna on the opener. If neither the remote nor the wall button works, the opener itself is not getting power or has an internal fault.
Lock mode
Some openers have a lock or vacation mode that disables the remote but still allows the wall button to work. Check your opener for a lock button and make sure it is not activated.
2. Safety Sensors Out of Alignment
This is one of the most common reasons a garage door will not close all the way, or closes and then immediately reverses back up.
Look at the two small sensor units mounted at the bottom of each side of the door frame, about 15 centimetres off the ground. Each one should show a steady light — usually green on one side and amber on the other depending on the brand. If either light is blinking or off entirely, the sensors have lost their alignment or something is blocking the beam between them.
How to fix it
- Clear anything that might be blocking the beam — a garbage bag, a shovel, a child’s bike, anything near the bottom of the door frame.
- Wipe the sensor lenses with a dry cloth. Dust, cobwebs, and in winter, condensation can disrupt the signal.
- Gently push each sensor back into position so it faces directly across at the other one. The mounting bracket usually has a small wing nut you can loosen to adjust the angle.
- Once both lights are steady, test the door.
If the lights come back on steady but the door still reverses, the sensors may be damaged or the wiring may have a fault. That is when to call us.
Winnipeg winter note: Cold temperatures can cause condensation to form on sensor lenses overnight. If your door reverses every morning in winter but works fine once the garage warms up, the sensors are the first place to look.
3. The Door Is Frozen to the Ground
In Winnipeg, this one is almost a rite of passage for homeowners. Water or snow gets under the bottom seal, the temperature drops overnight, and by morning the seal is frozen solid to the concrete floor. The opener strains against it, trips its force limit, and stops.
What to do
- Do not keep hitting the opener button. The motor is working against a frozen seal and running it repeatedly can burn out the drive gear or snap the spring.
- Pour warm water along the bottom seal to melt the ice. Not boiling water — a sudden temperature shock on cold concrete or a cold steel door can cause cracking.
- A heat gun or hair dryer moved slowly along the seal works well and gives you more control.
- Once the door breaks free, dry the area and apply a silicone spray to the bottom seal to help prevent it from bonding to the concrete again.
4. Broken Torsion Spring
If you heard a loud bang from inside the garage, like something heavy fell or a gunshot went off, and now the door will not open more than a few inches, a torsion spring has almost certainly broken.
The spring sits on the metal shaft above the door opening. Its job is to counterbalance the weight of the door so the opener only needs to do a small amount of work. When the spring breaks, the opener is suddenly trying to lift the full weight of the door — which can be anywhere from 90 to 200 kilograms — and the built-in force limiter kicks in and stops the motor.
What you will see
- The door opens two to six inches and then stops and reverses
- A visible gap or separation in the coil of the spring above the door
- The door feels extremely heavy when you try to lift it by hand after pulling the emergency release
- One side of the door is higher than the other
Do not force it: A door with a broken spring should not be operated until the spring is replaced. Do not try to lift it manually past the point where it becomes difficult to hold. Leave it where it is and call a technician.
Spring replacement is not a DIY job. The spring is under enormous tension even when it is broken, and working with it without the right tools and training can cause serious injury. Our technicians carry replacement springs for all standard door sizes on their trucks and most spring jobs are done in a single visit.
5. Snapped or Off-Track Cable
If the door is moving but one side is lower than the other, or if you can see a loose wire or coiled cable sitting on the garage floor near the bottom corner of the door, a cable has snapped or come off its drum.
Cables run from the bottom bracket on each side of the door up to a drum at the top. They work with the springs to lift the door evenly. When one fails, the door goes off balance and can jam in the tracks or come off them entirely.
Signs of a cable problem
- One side of the door hangs lower than the other
- You can see a loose cable coiled near the bottom corner of the door
- The door scrapes or catches on one side of the track as it moves
- The door closes with a hard thud on one side
Like springs, cables should not be repaired by someone without training. The tension involved is significant and getting it wrong can make the situation much worse. Call us and we will have it sorted in one visit.
Service page: a1plusdoors.ca/cable-repair-replacement/
Opener Motor or Drive Problems
If the opener runs — you can hear it — but the door does not move, the drive mechanism between the motor and the trolley that pulls the door has likely failed. On a chain drive opener this is usually a broken or stretched chain. On a belt drive it is a snapped belt. On a screw drive, the drive rod or carriage has stripped. On all of them, a plastic drive gear inside the motor unit wears down over years of use and eventually strips out completely.
How to tell
- You hear the motor running for the full travel cycle but the door does not move at all
- You hear grinding from the opener unit
- The chain or belt hangs loose or is visibly disconnected
A stripped drive gear is one of the most common opener repairs we do and is usually worth fixing if the opener is under 10 years old. If the unit is older than that, replacing the whole opener often makes more sense because new models are significantly quieter, more efficient, and come with better safety features.
Travel Limit Settings Are Off
If your door stops short before it fully opens, or reverses before it reaches the floor when closing, the travel limits on your opener may need adjustment. Travel limits tell the opener how far to travel in each direction. They can shift over time, especially after a power outage that resets the opener’s memory.
Most openers have two small adjustment screws on the back or side of the unit — one for the open limit and one for the close limit. Your opener manual will show you exactly where they are and how much to turn them. Usually a quarter turn at a time is enough to make a meaningful difference. This is one of the few opener adjustments that is safe to do yourself.
Worn Rollers or Bent Track
Sometimes a door will not open or close smoothly because the rollers that guide the door along the tracks have worn down or a section of track has bent inward. A door that stops midway, shudders, or catches in the same spot every time it travels is often a track or roller issue rather than a spring or opener problem.
Run your eye along the track on both sides of the door. Look for bends, dents, or sections where the track has pulled away from the wall bracket. Also look at the rollers themselves — nylon rollers crack and develop flat spots, and steel rollers can corrode and seize up in Winnipeg’s winters.
Need Help With Your Garage Door in Winnipeg?
If you have worked through this list and still cannot figure out what is wrong, or if the problem is a broken spring or snapped cable, call us. We are a Winnipeg company, our trucks are stocked for most common repairs, and we offer 24/7 emergency service for situations that cannot wait.
- Phone and text: (204) 404-3667
- Online: a1plusdoors.ca/contact/
- Emergency service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Frequently Asked Garage Door Not Working Answers
Why does my garage door go up but not come down?
In most cases this is a safety sensor issue. The beam between the two sensors at the bottom of the door frame is being interrupted, either by an obstruction, a dirty lens, or sensors that are out of alignment. Check both sensors for a steady light. If one is blinking, that side needs to be realigned.
Why does my garage door open on its own?
A door that opens by itself is usually picking up a stray radio signal from a neighbour’s opener, a car remote, or another device on the same frequency. You can fix this by reprogramming your opener to a new code. Check your opener manual for the learn button process. If the problem keeps happening after reprogramming, the circuit board inside the opener may have a fault.
Why does my garage door stop halfway?
A door that stops at the same point every time is usually hitting an obstruction in the track — a bent section, a piece of debris, or a seized roller that catches at that spot. A door that stops at random points is more likely an opener sensitivity issue, a dying motor capacitor, or a loose wire connection.
My garage door is making a grinding noise. Should I be worried?
Yes, grinding is worth paying attention to. It usually means metal-on-metal contact somewhere — either rollers that have lost their nylon coating and are running steel against the track, a drive gear in the opener that is starting to strip, or a hinge that has seized up. Lubricate the rollers, hinges, and tracks first. If the grinding continues after that, call us for an inspection.
