Garage door motor working but the door is not opening

• The motor runs normally, but the door doesn't move: the motor has been released from the door. See released.
• The motor strains or hums, the door lifts a little, then stops or goes back down: the door is too heavy for it, usually a spring or cable problem. See the springs.
• A click, or a beep, and nothing moves: power, a lock-out, or a lock. See locks and lock-outs and power.
• It opens part of the way and stops: limits, the tracks, or balance. See part-way.
• The wall button works, the remote doesn't: the remote. See our guide to remotes that don't work.

If your motor has a display, write down what it shows before you do anything else.

An overhead garage motor moves the door through a carriage that rides along its rail. If someone pulled the release during a power cut, the carriage is no longer connected, so the motor runs its chain and the door doesn't follow.

On Centurion's SDO4, the motor is engaged again by pulling the release handle back towards the motor until it clicks, then moving the carriage until it meets the chain and locks on. Centurion adds two warnings worth repeating: never open or close the door by pulling on the release handle, and release the motor with the door fully closed wherever you can, because an unbalanced door can drop. Other motors are similar; our model manuals have the steps.

A garage door motor doesn't lift the door's weight; the springs do. The motor only guides a balanced door up and down. Centurion's definition of balanced is useful: the door takes the same effort to open as to close, no more than about 10 kg either way, and it stays roughly where you leave it, moving no more than 100 mm on its own.

When a spring or cable breaks, the door suddenly weighs its full weight, the motor can't lift it, and it stops, reverses, or reports a fault. Centurion's SDO4 shows E3 for a door out of balance, E5 for a door too heavy for its force setting, and E6 for a collision.

Signs it's the springs:

• A loud bang from the garage recently, when nobody was using the door.
• A gap in a torsion spring's coils above the door.
• A loose or frayed cable at a bottom corner of the door.
• The door is very heavy, or drops, when released and lifted by hand.

If you see any of these, stop. Don't use the motor, and never touch the springs or cables: they hold the door's weight under great tension and can injure badly. This is a job for us; see garage door springs.

• A manual lock or bolt. An older handle lock or a sliding bolt on the inside will stop the door dead. Centurion and ET both ask for every lock and securing device to be removed or disabled when a motor is fitted, but on older doors they sometimes survive, and get used out of habit.
• A holiday lock-out. Many motors can be locked so remotes do nothing. On ET's DC Blue Advanced, an H on the display with rapid beeps and a flashing light means holiday lock-out is on; rapid beeps alone with a door that won't move point to party mode.
• A wall console lock. Some wall buttons have their own lock switch; check it's off.

• Low battery. An SDO4 shows Lb for low batteries, and E7 when not enough power is reaching the motor; it can't run from its power supply alone, so dead batteries stop it even with the mains on.
• No mains. ET's DC Blue Advanced gives a short beep every 15 seconds for a while after each use, with no courtesy light, when it's running on its battery.
• The plug or power point. Check the motor is plugged in and the point is on.

• Something in the tracks or a roller that has jumped out: look along both tracks.
• Limits not set or lost. ET's DC Blue Advanced shows P with five beeps when its limits and door profile haven't been set. Centurion's SDO4 shows E4 when it runs longer than it should, often because the wrong door type is selected.
• Balance and friction. Centurion notes that springs on sectional doors need to be kept greased: rusty springs, and the seasons' changes in temperature, add friction that can make the motor stop short. A door that sticks in winter and not summer is often telling you that.

Stop at the safe checks: the power, the release, the tracks, a lock or lock-out. Call us for anything involving springs, cables, rollers or the door's balance, for error codes that point to the drive or wiring (an SDO4's E8 is a drive fault), and whenever the door is stuck open and the house can't be secured.

The model pages walk through each motor's codes and settings: the Centurion SDO4, the ET DC Blue Advanced, the Centurion RDO for roll-up doors, and Digidoor.

On the job card, give the door type and the motor's make, what you hear, and any code on the display. Same-day repairs are offered when the day allows. All our spare parts are genuine, and every repair comes with our six-month guarantee on our repairs. No call-out fee when we do the work. If no work is done, a R650 call-out fee applies.