A garage door that has come off its track usually announces it: a scrape or a bang, then a door that sits crooked, jams at an angle, or has a roller sitting beside the track instead of inside it. It is a repair where trying to fix it yourself often makes it worse. The door is heavy, and on most doors the cables holding it up are still under spring tension even after the door has stopped moving.
This page covers how to tell the door is off track, why it happened, what is safe to do with the door where it is, and what the repair involves. If you heard a bang and can see a gap in a spring, start with how to tell if your garage door spring is broken. If a cable is slack or hanging, read broken garage door cable as well. The two often happen together.
How to tell the door is off track
Stop the door and look along both tracks, from the floor up through the curve to the section that runs along the ceiling. Do not touch anything yet.
- A roller is outside the track. The roller wheel sits beside the track, or rides on its edge, instead of running inside it. One roller out is enough to stop the door.
- The door is crooked or jammed at an angle. One side is higher than the other, or the door is twisted in the opening.
- The track has pulled away from the door. There is a gap between the edge of the door and the track, or a track bows outward where a bracket has come loose.
- A scrape or a grind, then the door stopped. The opener may have reversed, or strained until it gave up.
Some problems look similar but are a different repair. A dented or bent track with every roller still inside it, where the door binds or stops at the same spot, is track repair. Rollers that wobble, squeal or have cracked wheels but are still in the track are roller replacement. Both are worth fixing before they turn into an off-track door.
Why doors come off track
A door stays in its tracks when both sides lift evenly, the rollers are sound, and the tracks are straight and the right distance apart. When one of those fails, a roller can come out.
- Something hit the door or the track. A car backing out before the door is fully up, or a bumper or snowblower against the bottom of a track. A dent the roller cannot get past makes the door bind there, and a hard enough hit pushes rollers straight out.
- A cable came off or a spring broke. One side loses its lift, the door tilts, and the rollers on the low side are pulled out of line. That is why an off-track door with a slack cable is a cable and spring question as well.
- The door closed on something. A bin, a bike or a shovel under the door, and the opener kept pushing. The door bows and rollers pop out. An opener that is working properly reverses when the door touches an obstruction. If yours did not, that gets fixed too.
- Worn or broken rollers. A roller with a worn bearing or a cracked wheel wobbles, and it can climb out of the track, often at the curve.
- Loose or bent track brackets. When a bracket loosens, the track spreads away from the door and the rollers ride out at the gap.
- Ice and packed snow. Ice in the bottom of a track can stop a roller while the opener keeps pulling on the door. Garage door frozen shut covers freeing a frozen door without damage.
What to do right now
First, stop using the opener. If you can reach the plug without standing under the door, unplug the opener so nobody presses the wall button, a remote or the keypad while the door is jammed. Unplugging it does not release the door; only the red cord does that.
If the door is closed
Leave it closed. Do not pull the red release and try to lift it. A door that is out of its track jams harder, or comes further out, when it is forced by hand.
If the door is open or stuck partway
Keep people, pets and cars out from under it. Do not pull the red release: with rollers out of the track, the door can come down unevenly, or all at once if a cable or spring has also failed. Do not push the high side down or lift the low side. If the house cannot be secured, or a car is trapped, that is an emergency garage door repair call.
Whatever position the door is in
- Do not hammer or pry the track back into line, or try to force a roller back in with the weight of the door on it.
- Do not loosen track bolts or brackets. A loose bracket on a crooked door can let it shift.
- Leave the cables, drums, bottom brackets and springs alone. The cables and bottom brackets are under spring tension. Spring and cable work is not a DIY job.
- From where you can stand clear of the door, take a photo of each track and note whether a cable looks slack. When you call, say whether the door is closed, partly open or hanging crooked, and which town you are in.
Can you put it back in yourself?
Videos make it look like a pair of pliers and ten minutes: open up the track, pop the roller in, bend the track closed. What they skip is why the roller came out. If a cable is off its drum, a spring is broken or a bracket has let go, the door goes back in crooked and comes out again, sometimes while it is overhead.
Getting the door back in its tracks safely means securing it first so it cannot move. And the parts that usually caused it, the cables, springs and bottom brackets, are the parts that store the spring's energy. So our advice is to leave it, even when it looks like a single roller.
What an off-track repair involves
The current price range is on the off-track repair page, and every repair is on the full price list. You get the exact price in writing before any work starts. Most off-track repairs take one to two hours.
A typical visit:
- Secure the door so it cannot move or drop while it is being worked on.
- Find and fix the cause: reseat or replace a cable, straighten or replace a bent track section, re-set loose brackets, replace worn or broken rollers.
- Set the rollers back into the tracks and align both tracks so the door runs straight and level.
- Check the springs, the cables on both drums, and the balance of the door.
- Run the door through full cycles on the opener, and test that it reverses on the photo eyes and on contact with an obstruction.
If the door was forced while it was off track, a section can be creased or bowed. That is quoted separately as panel replacement. On an older door with more than one damaged section, it can be the point to compare against a new door.
Keeping it on its tracks
- Watch it run once a month. If one side runs ahead of the other, the door shudders or scrapes, or a roller looks crooked, stop using it and book track repair before it comes out.
- Replace worn rollers before a wheel cracks. Wobbling or squealing is the warning. See roller replacement.
- Keep the bottom of each track clear of leaves, grit, ice and packed snow.
- Do not grease the inside of the tracks. Rollers need a clean, dry track to roll on, and grease collects dirt. Lubricate the rollers, hinges and springs instead. The maintenance checklist has the full list.
- Test the safety reversal every month: lay a 2x4 flat under the door and close it. The door must reverse when it touches the board. An opener that reverses will not keep pushing a door into a bin until the rollers pop out.
- Let the door open all the way before you back the car out.
A yearly maintenance visit covers lubrication of the rollers and hinges, hardware tightening, a spring tension check, sensor alignment and the opener's force setting in one trip. The rest of the cold-weather list is in the winter guide.
When it is an emergency
Call for emergency garage door repair if the door is stuck open and the house cannot be secured, a car is trapped and you need it, or the door is hanging crooked overhead. The page lists the hours and what an emergency visit costs. A closed door that is off track, with nobody trapped, can wait for a scheduled visit: leave it closed and unplugged.
Door crooked, or a roller out of the track? Call Murray's Garage Door Services at (978) 758-0690 or book online. See off-track garage door repair for prices. If the door is stuck open or a car is trapped, go to emergency garage door repair.