It usually starts with a bang from the garage, loud enough that people think something fell off a shelf. Then the opener hums, the door lifts a few inches, and it stops. In most cases, that is a broken spring.

A broken spring is one of the most common garage door repairs in Santa Cruz County, and one of the few where what you do in the first hour matters. Here is how to confirm it, what to leave alone, and how to get the car out without getting hurt.

Step 1: Confirm it is the spring

Look for these signs, without touching anything under tension:

  • A gap in the coil above the door. Most newer garages have torsion springs on a metal shaft just above the opening. A broken one shows a clear gap where the coil separated.
  • A loose or hanging spring along the tracks. Older garages, including many around Seabright, the Westside, and Live Oak, use extension springs that run beside the horizontal tracks. A broken one hangs loose or lies on the floor.
  • The door feels like it weighs a ton. The springs do the lifting. Without them, the opener or your arms are lifting the full weight of the door.
  • The opener runs but the door barely moves, or it lifts crooked with one side higher than the other.
  • Loose cables hanging at the bottom corners of the door.

Step 2: Stop, and leave these alone

  • Stop pressing the remote. Openers are designed to guide a balanced door, not to lift its full weight. Running it on a door with a broken spring can strip the drive gear, bend the top section, or pull the opener off its mount.
  • Do not pull the red release cord if the door is open. With a broken spring, nothing is holding the door up except the opener. Release it and the door can drop fast.
  • Do not try to wind, unwind, or replace the spring yourself. Torsion springs store a lot of energy, and a slipped winding bar can cause serious injury. The same goes for loosening the bottom brackets, which hold the cables under tension.
  • Keep kids and pets away from the door until it is fixed.

Step 3: If your car is trapped

This is the part that ruins mornings. If the door is closed and the car is inside, resist the urge to muscle the door up. Many double doors weigh well over 100 pounds without spring help, and they can drop without warning if your grip slips.

Instead, call and tell us the car is inside so we can plan the visit around getting it out. If you have to be somewhere before we arrive, a ride is a far better trade than an injury.

If the door is stuck open, leave it there. Lock the door between the garage and the house so the home is secure while you wait.

Step 4: Make the call

When you call, it helps to have:

  • Your address or nearest cross street.
  • Whether the door is up or down, and whether a car is inside.
  • Whether the spring is above the door or along the tracks, if you can see it.
  • The approximate size of the door: single or double.

For Santa Cruz, Soquel, Aptos, Scotts Valley, Watsonville, and Ben Lomond, call our Capitola shop at (831) 282-8312. The line takes calls 24/7, and same-day spring repair is often available when the schedule and parts allow.

What the repair involves

A proper spring repair is more than swapping one coil:

  • Both springs are replaced. On a two-spring door, the second spring has the same cycles on it and is usually close to failing. A new spring next to a worn one also leaves the door unbalanced.
  • The springs are sized to the door. Weight, height, drum size, and wire size all matter. A spring that is too strong or too weak wears out the opener and makes the door unsafe.
  • Cables, drums, and bearings get checked. A spring break often frays a cable or knocks it off the drum.
  • The door is balanced and tested. It should stay put when lifted halfway by hand, then run smoothly with the opener.

Our garage door spring repair in Santa Cruz page has more detail on torsion versus extension systems and what we check.

What it costs

Price depends on the spring type, the weight of the door, and whether cables or drums were damaged when the spring let go. We inspect the door and give you a price before any work starts.

Why springs break, and how to get more years out of the next pair

Springs wear out by cycles. Many standard springs are rated for roughly 10,000 open-and-close cycles, which is about seven years for a household that uses the door four times a day. Near the coast, rust shortens that. A rusty spring rubs against itself every time it winds, and pitting gives cracks a place to start.

To get the most out of the new pair, lubricate the coils a few times a year with a garage-door lubricant, keep an eye out for rust, and check the door's balance once or twice a year. Our guide to preventing garage door rust in Santa Cruz has a full maintenance routine.