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My garage door has randomly decided to not close. The door will close a few inches to a few feet before reversing. It may take 2 attempts of 10 until it will fully close. I have checked:

  1. Sensors are properly aligned and cleaned.
  2. Sensor wires are not cut or damaged from what I can see.
  3. This happens with both the remote and wall mounted opener.
  4. The light on the back of the motor blinks 4 times, which according to the manual is a sensor issue.
  5. I have tried to adjust the down force with no luck.
  6. If I manually close the garage, the garage door chain will run with no issue.

Does all of this mean that there is an issue with the actual door?

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    The opener also has limit switches that will stop operation of the door takes too much force to close (which could indicate there is a person being smashed under the door). The door could be binding on the tracks, or there could be an issue with the sensor. Most openers have a way for adjusting the "closing force" or some other wording. – JPhi1618 Oct 16 '15 at 14:15
  • I had the same problem and it turned out to be a stripped nylon gear in the motor. Pop the cover off and take a look! – paulmz Oct 16 '15 at 17:42
  • Lack of lubrication in pivots of the closing mechanism can do this. Perhaps a piece of crud got caught in the thing? Look for rust and check for crud. – Wayfaring Stranger Jul 24 '19 at 19:19
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  1. If I manually close the garage, the garage door chain will run with no issue.

Does this mean you detached the door from the drive?

Does all of this mean that there is an issue with the actual door?

Not necessarily.

It could be the chain is fouled somehow, or that the door opener casing has shifted or loosened.

In my experience in the damp Pacific Northwet is that the (wooden) door has swollen with the onslaught of autumn rains and now binds slightly against the door frame.

To confirm this as the cause, raise and lower the door manually being careful not to push or pull the door into or away from the frame and see what parts might be touching. If the door is large, a helper is quite useful.

Also, inspect the rails and roller guides to see if there is anything amiss. Give all the parts a good firm wiggle to see if they might be shifting under the strain of the door moving.

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    Hah! - "Pacific Northwet". I don't know if that was intentional or not, but either way, I like it! :) – bitsmack Oct 16 '15 at 20:21
  • Yes, I detached the door to see if the chain was running properly and it would run all the way through the cycle with no issues. I will take a look at the rails and guides. – junta Oct 16 '15 at 20:41
  • I have inspected the rails and rollers but nothing seems loose. The gear is not stripped at all. It is strange because it will work for a few days and then suddenly refuse to close all the way. It always reverses in different locations too. So sometimes it reverses a foot down and sometimes 4 feet. The sensor lights are correctly lit, so it really doesn't seem like a sensor issue. – junta Oct 20 '15 at 3:45
  • @junta: How does lifting and lowering the door detached from the chain feel? – wallyk Oct 20 '15 at 4:46
  • It moves smoothly with no obvious places that feel like it is getting hung up on the rail. Last night I couldn't get the garage to close and this morning the garage closed with no problem. Strange... – junta Oct 20 '15 at 13:33
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I had the exact same problem! The sensors stayed steady green, yet the door would keep reversing.

If you have a problem with your garage door closing, it is 99% likely to be the sensor. Why? Because gravity is working for you. Sensors are the only reason the garage door would reverse.

First, I checked the wiring both at the sensors & at the opener. When I wiggled the wire at the opener I noticed that the amber light on the back would blink 4 times, meaning that it was not connected well. So the first step was to reconnect the wire to the board.

But if I had to wiggle it for it to disconnect, that means that something was causing it to wiggle while the door was moving.

I noticed that the chain was a) sagging and b) slightly twisted. This was causing it to vibrate a lot while opening/closing, which would cause the wire to come loose.

Tightening the loose chain is very easy. Here's a great tutorial. While tightening, you can also make sure that the chain is perfectly straight, not twisted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA1tsB_M7bA

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