Garage Door Cable Snapped or Off the Drum in San Diego

What you are seeing

A cable hangs loose next to the track or lies on the floor. One end of the bottom section sits higher than the other. Up at the shaft, one drum has cable wrapped neatly in its grooves and the other is empty or tangled.

The door may be jammed partway, twisted in the opening or stuck shut. You might have heard a snap or a twang, or the door may simply have closed crooked one day.

If you see broken strands sticking out of a cable near a bottom corner, it has not failed yet, but it will. That is the time to call, before it lets go.

What usually causes it

Fraying and rust. The cable is most exposed at the bottom bracket, close to the floor, where water and salt air collect. Strands break one at a time until the cable gives.

A slack cable. If the door closes onto a bin or rests on something while the opener keeps going, the cable goes slack and can jump off the drum. When the door moves again, it winds wrong or not at all.

A broken spring. When a torsion spring breaks, the shaft loses tension, and the cables often go slack and come off the drums.

Wear. A cable rubbing a track edge, or riding a worn drum groove, wears through over time.

What you can safely check in two minutes

Look, do not touch. The bottom bracket holds the cable under spring tension and can fly loose, so never pull on, rewind or unhook a cable, or loosen a bracket or a drum.

1. Unplug the opener or switch off its breaker so nobody runs it.
2. From a step back, check both bottom corners: is a cable attached at each bottom bracket?
3. Look up at both drums: is cable wrapped on each one?
4. Look at the springs for a gap in the coil.
5. Photograph all of it from a safe distance.

Which repair fixes it

We secure the door so it cannot move before any tension comes off, then match the repair to the cause.

• A frayed or snapped cable: cable and drum replacement, on both sides.
• A cable off the drum after the door closed on something: the same repair, with the drums checked for cracks and worn grooves.
• A broken spring that let the cables go slack: spring replacement in the same visit.
• A door twisted out of its tracks when the cable went: off-track repair.
• A worn pulley on an extension-spring door: replaced along with the cables.

When a repair stops making sense

Cables are a wear part and nearly always worth replacing. The question is what else got hurt when the cable went.

• If the door came down crooked and buckled two or more sections, the sections are measured and quoted, and on an older door that can tip the decision toward a new one.
• If the bottom section is rusted through where the bottom bracket mounts, a new bracket has nothing solid to bolt to.
• If the cables, drums, springs and rollers are all worn out together on an inexpensive door, weigh the full repair against replacement.

A new garage door is a job for a licensed contractor, and we say so.

Across San Diego

Cable failures follow the salt air. In Imperial Beach, rust starts at the bottom brackets and the cable ends, especially in garages that stay damp. Our coastal maintenance guide covers what slows it down.

Inland, the door sets the pattern. In Spring Valley, many 1970s ranch houses lift a steel sectional on two extension springs, with the cables running over pulleys, and a worn pulley can chew a cable. Those springs need safety cables through them as well, which some older doors lack. On torsion-spring doors, cables most often come off the drum after the door closes onto a bin or a bike and goes slack.

Where we see this

We cover all of San Diego County, same day in most cases. Some of the places we work:

• La Mesa
• El Cajon
• Santee
• Poway
• Escondido
• San Marcos
• Vista
• Oceanside
• Clairemont
• Tierrasanta
• Point Loma
• Pacific Beach
• La Jolla
• Carmel Valley
• All service areas

Related guides

• Garage Door Maintenance Near the Coast: A San Diego Guide: What salt air does to garage door springs, cables, tracks and brackets near the San Diego coast, what you can safely maintain, and a seasonal checklist.
• Broken Garage Door Spring: What to Do Right Now: Heard a loud bang in the garage? How to spot a broken spring, why the door stays shut and the opener off, and what to do while you wait for the repair.
• Garage Door Parts Glossary: Every Part Named and Explained: Garage door parts in plain words, from torsion spring and cable drum to trolley and logic board, with a labeled diagram and the parts you must never touch.