Garage Door Won't Close, Reverts near bottom, Why?

Question

Background: Our doors are made out of wood. They are extremely heavy and around 30+ years old.

Recently we notice our 3rd garage door stopping near the bottom of the track when closing and reverting back up.

The only way to keep the garage from reverting back up everytime, is to manually guide the garage door from by hand and apply a bit of pressure so that it doesn't trigger the door to stop and reverse.

We don't have any sensors on our doors. One thing I did also notice is that our spring is completely rusted out.

Couple of videos of what's happening when it's opening and closing.

Answer 1

Garage motors have a torque sensor to minimise the crushing risk. this means that if the motor is under too much load, it will automatically stop. My guess is that your track is bent, or dirty and is creating too much friction for the motor.

you can test the opening and closing force by releasing the motor (pulling the wire to bypass the motor) and manually opening and closing the garage door. (do you see that its difficult to open at any point?)

the solution is to clean the tracks with a cloth and apply some grease... now garage vendors dont like you greasing your own track, so check your warantee first... but you will be amazed what a good greasing will do to the tracks...

regarding the type of grease to use, i would check with the motor manufacturer, the reason they dont like it is becuase grease can attract dust if you are in a dusty area, typically I simply apply a petrolium based grease on a clean track and 99% of the time the problem goes away.

Answer 2

So after doing a bit more research about garage maintenance. My gut was telling me it had something to do with that spring. Since it seemed rusted out and the loud sounds were coming directly from the spring.

I ended up getting a can of WD-40 Protective White Lithium Grease. I sprayed all the wheels, and specifically sprayed the "rusted out" Spring. I sprayed it twice. After doing so, those large Bangs you hear in the video are now gone and the garage door closes once again smoothly

Answer 3

First see if the spring is weak or set wrong. Do this by disconnecting the trolley and see how difficult it is to raise the door by hand. Raise the door to about 5 feet up from the garage floor and release it. Does the door stay in position or does it fall to the floor? If it falls, then the spring should be wound tighter until the door stays in position. Winding the spring tighter is a professional job unless you are experienced in how to do this safely.

EDIT You have an old door and an old opener. You report that you have no sensors on the doors. I assume you mean the optical sensor which reverses the door if the beam is interrupted. This has been standard on residential openers for decades (not generally required for openers in industrial use), but getting a new opener with these sensors could prevent damage to equipment or injury to a pet or to a person, especially to a child.

It is almost certainly time to call a competent professional service to evaluate the the condition of the door and opener and perform maintenance.

Answer 4

The wood of your door is hitting the end of a board.

You can see this in both of your videos. Screenshot below from about 0.17; it is about to hit.

I circled where it hits. You can see that the paint has been worn off the door at that spot from hitting. To test it, put something like a piece of putty or dough on the edge of that wooden support. If I am right it will smash flat against the door at that spot.

Why it is hitting is another matter. If the board were loose it would hit the door earlier. I suspect the wood of your door is warped at that one place. If you see it is hitting, take that board off and see how it goes. Maybe you can flip it around and put it back on if that is the issue.

I am very envious at how clean your garage is. Or maybe you cleared out the spiders for the video.