Garage Door Spring Replacement in San Diego

If your spring just broke

A torsion spring usually breaks with a bang loud enough to sound like something heavy fell in the garage. From a safe spot, look up at the shaft above the door: a broken spring shows a gap of about two inches in the coil. The door then feels very heavy, and the opener may lift it a few inches and stop.

Safety first: do not run the opener and do not try to lift the door by hand. If the door is stuck open, leave it open and do not pull the release cord, because the door can come down hard. Never unwind, adjust or remove a spring, a cable, a cable drum or a bottom bracket yourself. Those parts carry enough force to cause serious injury.

Our broken spring page and our guide on what to do when a spring breaks cover the next steps.

Torsion, extension and TorqueMaster springs

The springs carry nearly all of the weight of your door, so the opener only has to guide it. From inside the garage you can tell which kind you have.

• Torsion springs sit on a steel shaft above the opening, anchored to a center bearing plate. As the door closes, the shaft turns and the springs wind up to store the energy for the next lift. Most doors built since the 1990s use one or two.
• Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks and stretch as the door closes. They show up on older and lighter doors, and each one needs a safety cable running through it.
• TorqueMaster, on some Wayne Dalton doors, hides the springs inside the tube above the door. It takes its own springs and tools; see the Wayne Dalton page.

Our garage door parts glossary names every piece on the shaft.

Sizing a spring: wire, diameter, length and wind

A torsion spring is matched to your door by four measurements, and a spring that is close but wrong leaves the door heavy or lets it drift up.

• Wire size: we measure the length of 10 or 20 coils and divide, because a tape across one coil is not precise enough.
• Inside diameter: most residential torsion springs are 1 3/4 or 2 inches across the inside, often stamped on the winding cone.
• Length: the coil length at rest. On a broken spring we measure both pieces and add them.
• Wind: facing the door from inside, a right-wound spring sits to the left of the center bearing plate and a left-wound spring to the right. On most springs the cones are color coded, red for right wind and black for left.

We then check the numbers against the height, weight and drums of the door, because the old spring may have been the wrong size too.

One spring or both: how to decide

Many double doors carry two torsion springs, one on each side of the center bearing plate. When one breaks, the other has made exactly the same number of cycles and is rarely far behind.

• Replace the pair when both springs are the same age, when the door runs several times a day, or when you would rather not book another visit in a few months. Matched springs also balance the door more evenly.
• Replace one when the surviving spring is fairly new, for example if it was replaced on its own a year or two ago.
• Single-spring doors, common on lighter single-car doors, get one spring sized to the door, or two if the door is too heavy for one.
• Extension springs are always replaced as a pair, so both sides pull with the same force.

Single and pair prices are both on our pricing page.

Cycle ratings, high-cycle springs and salt air

Springs are rated in cycles, and one cycle is one open and one close. Standard residential springs are commonly rated around 10,000 cycles. At four cycles a day that is roughly seven years, and a household that runs the door eight times a day gets about half that. Our guide on how long garage door springs last has the full chart.

High-cycle springs, rated for 20,000 cycles or more, use heavier wire and a longer coil to lift the same door. The trade-off: they cost more up front and need more room on the shaft, and on some doors there is not enough. We check the room and quote them on request.

Salt air is the other clock. Bare oil-tempered steel pits in marine air, so on doors near the water, as in Del Mar, galvanized or coated springs are worth asking about.

How we replace a spring and balance the door

We clamp the door so it cannot move, release whatever tension is left in the old springs, and swap them on the shaft. The new springs are wound to suit the height of your door and its drums.

Then comes the part that matters most: balance. With the opener disconnected, a balanced door stays put when lifted halfway by hand. If it drifts up or sinks, we adjust the tension until it holds.

Last, we reconnect the opener, check travel and force, and run two reverse tests: the door must go back up when the sensor beam is blocked, and when it closes on a 2x4 laid flat on the floor. A pair of torsion springs takes about 45 minutes to an hour, and a door that also needs cables takes longer.

Converting extension springs to torsion

An older door on extension springs can often be converted to a torsion setup. We take out the extension springs, pulleys and cables, and fit a shaft with torsion springs, a center bearing plate, end bearing plates, drums and new cables.

The springs then sit on a shaft instead of stretching beside the tracks, and the door usually runs smoother and more evenly. A conversion needs enough headroom above the door for the shaft and drums, and it costs more than a new pair of extension springs, so we quote it after a photo or a visit. If it would cross the $1,000 line, we tell you before anything is ordered.

Extension springs are still common on the 1960s and 1970s ranch houses in Lakeside, so the question comes up there. Our guide to torsion vs extension springs weighs the two.

Where we do this

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

• Escondido
• San Marcos
• Vista
• Oceanside
• Carlsbad
• Encinitas
• Del Mar
• National City
• Mira Mesa
• Scripps Ranch
• Rancho Bernardo
• Mission Valley
• Normal Heights
• Kensington and Talmadge
• All service areas

Related guides

• Garage Door Spring Replacement Cost in San Diego: What garage door spring replacement typically costs in San Diego: one spring or two, torsion or extension, high-cycle upgrades and what a fair quote shows.
• 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.
• Torsion vs Extension Garage Door Springs: What's the Difference?: How torsion and extension garage door springs work, how to tell which you have, pros and cons, safety cables, conversion and what each means for repair.