Garage door opens partway then stops
This is almost always a up-limit setting, or the opener straining against friction. Repair costs $130 to $400 and takes 45 to 90 minutes. Safe to operate: Yes, but book it.
Check this first — it may cost you nothing
Pull the emergency release and lift by hand. If it gets noticeably harder at the same point where the opener stops, the problem is the door — a bent track or a seized roller — not the opener.
Why this happens
A door that stops short on the way up has either had its up-limit drift, or it is meeting enough resistance that the opener's force limit cuts in. On an older opener the second is more common and points at the door rather than the motor.
A roller catching on a bent section of track stops the door mid-travel at the same spot every time.
Less likely, but possible
- A roller with a collapsed bearing binding at one point in the travel
- A bent section of track, usually from a vehicle bump
- Spring tension falling as the spring nears the end of its life
What happens if I ignore it?
The opener works harder every cycle to overcome whatever is binding, which shortens its life and eventually strips the drive gear. The underlying track or roller fault also gets worse.
The repair: off-track repair
Garage door off-track repair costs $150 to $350 when the track is straight and the panels are undamaged. Forcing the door back by hand is what turns a straightforward repair into a panel replacement.
Read the full off-track repair guide →Get a tech dispatched
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