Broken Garage Door Spring: What to Do
Broken garage door spring? What to do, what not to do, how to tell, and why it's not a DIY fix in Illinois. Call 123-456-7890 for a local pro.
If your garage door spring just broke, the single most important thing is to stop using the door and leave the opener alone. The spring carries the door's entire weight, so with it broken the door is far heavier than it looks and the opener can burn out trying to lift it. Broken springs are the most common garage door failure in Illinois, where cold steel snaps in winter — at Chicago's O'Hare station there are about 6.5 days a year at or below zero under NOAA's 1991–2020 normals. This guide covers how to tell a spring has broken, exactly what to do and not do, why it isn't a DIY fix, and what the repair involves.
The Short Answer
Leave the door down, stop using the opener, keep people and cars from under the door, and call a technician. Do not try to lift the door by hand, do not run the opener, and do not attempt to replace the spring yourself — a wound torsion spring stores enough energy to cause serious injury. Spring replacement is a job for a pro with winding bars and the right tools, and both springs on a two-spring door should be replaced together.
How Garage Door Springs Work
Springs, not the opener, do the heavy lifting. There are two systems. Torsion springs mount on a shaft above the door and wind up as the door closes, storing the energy that raises it; most modern and heavier doors use them, often a matched pair. Extension springs run along the tracks above each side and stretch to store energy; they are common on older, lighter single-car doors and should have a safety cable threaded through them. Either way, the spring counterbalances the door so the opener only has to guide a near-weightless door. Remove that balance and the opener is lifting the door's full weight — which it is not built to do.
How to Tell a Spring Is Broken
Several signs point to a broken spring:
- The door is suddenly very heavy to lift by hand, or won't lift at all.
- The opener runs but the door barely moves or stops a few inches up.
- There is a visible gap in the torsion spring on the shaft above the door.
- A loud bang was heard from the garage — the sound a spring makes when it snaps, often on a cold night.
- The door hangs crooked or drops fast when lowered.
- The top section bends or the cables have come loose.
Any of these means the spring, not the opener, is the problem. The emergency-release test confirms it: pull the release and lift the door by hand — a balanced door stays put halfway, a door with a broken spring is far too heavy and wants to drop.
What Not to Do
Do not keep pressing the opener button. The opener only guides the door; the spring lifts it, so running the opener against a dead spring forces the motor to carry the full weight and burns it out or strips the drive gear — turning a spring job into a spring-and-opener job. Do not try to lift a double door by hand, which can be well over 150 pounds with no spring, and never put hands or feet under a door held up by anything other than a working spring. And do not attempt a DIY spring replacement; the tension in a torsion spring is the reason this is a professional repair.
Why Both Springs Should Be Replaced
On a door with two torsion springs, replace both even if only one broke. The springs are installed together and wear at the same rate, so when one fails the other is near the end of its life. Replacing only the broken one usually means a second service call within weeks and an unbalanced door in the meantime. A matched pair, sized to the door's weight, keeps the door balanced and the opener working easily. On a single-spring door, replacing it is often the moment to consider a torsion upgrade for longer, more even life. This is covered under garage door spring repair.
Why It Isn't a DIY Job
A torsion spring is wound under enough tension to break a hand or worse if it releases without control, which is why winding bars and the correct technique are essential. Beyond the danger, the spring has to be sized correctly — wrong wire gauge, inside diameter, or length leaves the door unbalanced and burns out the opener — and the door rebalanced afterward. The small parts cost does not offset the injury risk and the real chance of fitting a wrong-sized spring. This is the single most-cautioned garage door repair, and it belongs to a technician.
What the Repair Involves and Costs
A technician secures the door, releases the old spring's tension safely, fits a new spring (or pair) sized to the door's measured weight, winds it to the correct turns, checks the cables and drums, rebalances the door, and tests the opener's force and auto-reverse. Most jobs take an hour or two. On cost, replacing one torsion spring generally runs $150 to $350 and a matched pair $300 to $500, per 2026 figures from This Old House and HomeGuide, with Chicago-area jobs trending toward $350 to $550 because metro labor runs higher. See the cost guide for the full breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
You should not. With a broken spring the door carries its full weight — well over 100 pounds on many doors, more on a double — with nothing to counterbalance it, so lifting it by hand is unsafe and it can drop. Running the opener is worse, since the motor isn't built to lift the door's full weight and will burn out or strip its gear. Leave the door down, keep people from under it, and call a technician.
No. A torsion spring is wound under high tension and stores enough energy to cause serious injury if it releases, which is why winding bars and the correct technique are essential. The job also requires sizing the spring to the door's weight and balancing the door afterward. The small parts cost does not offset the injury risk or the chance of fitting a wrong-sized spring. Spring replacement should be left to a technician with the right tools.
Pull the emergency release and lift the door by hand. If the door is very heavy or won't stay up halfway, the spring is the problem. If the door lifts easily by hand but the opener won't move it, the opener or its sensors are more likely. A visible gap in the torsion spring or a loud bang heard earlier points to the spring. On Illinois doors a cold-weather failure after a bang is almost always a snapped spring.
Most spring replacements are completed in one visit once the technician has the correctly sized springs, often in about an hour or two for a standard door. A heavier or oversized door, or one that also needs cables or a balance adjustment, takes longer. Because this directory lists companies rather than scheduling the work, the company you reach confirms the timing for your door. Leave the door down until it is fixed.
Garage door springs break most in winter because cold steel loses flex and becomes brittle. A torsion spring is rated for about 10,000 cycles, so after years of use it is near the end of its life regardless, and the coldest days — about 6.5 a year at or below zero at O'Hare, per NOAA's 1991–2020 normals — are when a tired spring finally snaps. The spring was already worn from use; the cold is the final push. Replacing both springs as a pair prevents a quick second failure.
Replacing one torsion spring generally runs $150 to $350 and a matched pair $300 to $500, per 2026 figures from This Old House and HomeGuide. In the Chicago area, where labor runs about $90 to $110 an hour, a two-spring job typically lands in the $350 to $550 range, with heavier doors and high-cycle springs costing a little more. See the cost guide for detail, or call 123-456-7890 for a local figure.
Three things help. Ask for high-cycle springs (20,000 cycles or more) if the door is used heavily — they roughly double the life for a small added cost. Keep the springs and rollers lightly lubricated with a garage-door or silicone lubricant, especially before winter, so the door isn't fighting drag. And keep the door balanced — if it starts feeling heavy or the opener strains, have it checked before the spring fully fails. A balanced, lubricated door wears its springs more slowly.
Call Now for Spring Repair in Illinois
If your garage door spring broke, leave the door down and call 123-456-7890 to reach a garage door company in Illinois.
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