Noisy Garage Door? What Each Sound Means
Garage doors are never silent, but new or louder noises usually point to a specific part. Here is what the most common sounds mean.
Request a technicianSqueaking or squealing
Usually dry hinges, rollers or springs. A garage-door lubricant (not heavy grease) on the moving metal parts often quiets it. Do not grease the tracks themselves.
Grinding
Often worn rollers, a bent track or a roller rubbing the track. Worn steel rollers can be replaced with quieter sealed nylon rollers. See cable and roller repair.
Rattling
Loose nuts and bolts on the hinges and track brackets. Tightening them helps, but do not touch the bolts on the bottom brackets where the cables attach — those are under tension.
Popping or snapping
Can be a spring under strain or a torsion spring that is binding. If it is getting worse, have the springs inspected before they fail.
A single loud bang
If you hear one loud bang and the door will not lift, a spring has most likely broken. Stop using the opener. See spring repair.
Humming or clicking from the opener
The motor is running but not moving the door. This can be a stripped gear, a disconnected trolley, or a broken spring the opener cannot lift. See opener repair.
Making a door quieter
Lubrication, tightened hardware, nylon rollers and a belt-drive or wall-mount opener make the biggest difference. A tune-up covers most of this in one visit.
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