Troubleshooting Garage Door Tracks

Your automatic garage door has over 300 different components so it is not uncommon for some of them to cause you trouble every now and then. While modern tracks are made to be strong and durable, they can give you a hard time. Get practical advice on how to deal with the most common issues affecting these important hardware parts.

Eliminating Blockages of All Kinds

If the door keeps reversing, this is usually the result of something blocking one of the tracks. You need to run a close inspection to identify the precise cause of the problem. If there is a pebble blocking the path of the rollers, you simply need to take it out. Remember to open the door fully and to disconnect it from the opener in the first place. If there is dirt accumulation causing the jamming, you need to use a mild solvent or break cleaner to get rid of it. Check what the door’s manufacturer recommends before buying a product.

Door jamming and scraping sounds can also be caused when the two sections of either track have gotten misaligned. The solution is fairly simple. The bolts are loosened to make the alignment of the sections easy and quick. Then they are tightened again to ensure that the two sections will stay into place. If there is damage to the bolts and/or brackets, they should be replaced as soon as possible.

Very often the door gets jammed because the track is bent. Again, close inspection will determine the cause of the problem and how bad it is. Usually, careful and accurate bent track repair is perfectly sufficient. However, when the bending is bad the only solution is for the affected track to be replaced with a new one of the same size.

Why are these garage door parts prone to getting rusty when they are made from galvanized steel? This is because the bottom ends of the tracks get into contact with road salt and driveway cleaners which have highly damaging ingredients. If rust has already occurred, full cleaning is mandatory. The next steps include cleaning the garage floor more often during the winter and avoiding damaging hardware cleaners.

Now you have a clear idea of how to get rid of issues affecting garage door tracks.