Garage door made a loud bang. After that it would only open @10 inches. Manual also won't work.

B B Garage door EXPERT October 13, 2009

Most of the time this indicates that the garage door spring has broken. The springs will either be on the side of the tracks(extension springs) or up above the door(torsion springs). Extension springs usually have one on each side but can have two on each side if it is a double door. These springs are made available to the public, but make to mistake they are dangerous. If you go to a retailer such as lowes with the broken one you can match it up with a new pair. Replace all the springs because the other one is about to break. If tit is a torsion spring it will have the bracket that attaches to the header above the door and if it just shoots off either left or right then you have one spring. If it goes left and right off this bracket you have two. These springs are not made available to the public and are extremely dangerous. A pro is recommended for this job. A good tech will check the rest of the door and lift system for wear and tear and lubricate the door. He should also check over the opener the same way. Make sure he does a 2x4 safety reversal test too. The door should balance 1/2 the way up with the new springs, stay all the way up and stay all the way down too. Your opener should not try to lift this much weight and I would unplug it until it is fixed. You can disconnect the opener from the door and push the button to see if it runs ok. If your car is stuck in the garage get some friends and lift the door by hand and lower it by hand until the door is fixed.

The only thing on the opener that could possibly make this sound would be the chain/cable. If you look up and it is hanging down then this has happened. You can order a new part at searspartsdirect.com. Thanks BB

Danny_David October 13, 2009

The expert gave a very good answer. Just to ensure you: I had the same thing happen to me and I spent hours on the internet to find out what was going on. It turns out I had two "enclosed" torsion springs and I decided not to try to fix it myself. I was able to find a repairman very near to me (even in my very small city) by looking in the yellow pages! It was not very expensive to replace the two springs with one of the more common (and easier to work with) "exposed" torsion spring. Unless you are very adept and comfortable working on "pressurized" objects, call a pro.