Broken garage-door spring.

[lloyd3]

The things you don't even think about!  Heard a big bang last evening that I thought was up on my deck. My deck sits directly over one of my garage bays and the bang I heard wasn't the heavy winds blowing over a piece of deck furniture. It was the big lift-spring on the garage door adjacent to the bay my old Dodge sits in. Normally the car is covered by a decently-heavy protective cover but last night it was not (I had to move it recently to replace a washer/dryer combo).  

It could have been a disaster, but....thankfully, it wasn't.  The car was covered in dust and drywall debris, but the 4-foot long and fairly heavy spring was just laying right next to the undamaged passenger door. All the fragments from the failure of the primary attachment loop were deflected away from the car by an approximately 8-inch boxed-in support beam that runs between the two bays.  The garage-door guy that came to repair it today says that it's not uncommon for this to happen to older garage door set-ups.

You'd think that being tucked safely away in a clean and dry garage was absolute safety itself.  Think again.

[moparnut]

Tell them to wrap a cable through the spring when fully extended. That way if it ever happens again it will be hanging harmlessly,no damage.

[VegasCharger]

Glad you Dodged a Bullitt.

[dual fours]

Tell them to wrap a cable through the spring when fully extended. That way if it ever happens again it will be hanging harmlessly,no damage.

YES, DO ALL YOUR SPRINGS WITH CABLES.
If this is uncommon to older springs, I've been lucky, one spring out of fourteen in thirty years. What do you think about the new spring, is it made in China? How do you feel about China metals?
Your Door man did replace both springs I hope, so the door is lifted equally.
It really gets you attention when your in the garage when this happens!

[morepower]

one of my pins in my garage door fell off and I heard a ting, found the pin on the ground and a small nick on the decklid...dang it.

[69bronzeT5]

There was a post on For A Bodies Only quite a few years back where a spring let go and ran itself down the quarter of someone's freshly painted Dart......left a 2" crease the length of the quarter.... 

[alfaitalia]

Exactly why a few years back I changed the springs on both my garage doors to the "spring wrapped around a pole and lift wire system"...I'm sure there is a proper name for it ! I had one of the springs go, like you did, as I was opening it and I went straight through the window over the door! Glad it went up and not down as my freshly painted  Orange Yamaha XJR with nitrous was parked inline with the escapee spring!

[lloyd3]

Everything has the safety cable now....

[white]

About 15 years ago I was working on my 68 charger in my dad's garage at 1am when I was under the car replacing axle seals when I heard a load bang and heard glass breaking, thought someone shot at the garage! found out the spring broke and hit the roof truss then when thorough the window of the garage, i was lucky it did not hit me or the car!

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

Exactly why a few years back I changed the springs on both my garage doors to the "spring wrapped around a pole and lift wire system"...I'm sure there is a proper name for it ! I had one of the springs go, like you did, as I was opening it and I went straight through the window over the door! Glad it went up and not down as my freshly painted  Orange Yamaha XJR with nitrous was parked inline with the escapee spring!

= Garage Door Torsion Bar Springs.   

[6pkrtse]

Lets see some of these safety cable ideas. I may have to do that to my door springs before it is too late.

[moparstuart]

i bought my spring kit off ebay with the two twist rod tool kit and did it my self  , several how to video's on u tube  . its pretty simple  .  about an hour to get it done . 

[6pkrtse]

Come to think of it I have the older style that has a long bar running thru the center of the two tension springs at the top of the door that goes from one side of the door to the other side. If a spring/s was to break it can not go anywhere anyway because of the bar running thru the center of them. So, i guess I am okay with this style.

[A383Wing]

Come to think of it I have the older style that has a long bar running thru the center of the two tension springs at the top of the door that goes from one side of the door to the other side. If a spring/s was to break it can not go anywhere anyway because of the bar running thru the center of them. So, i guess I am okay with this style.

That's the way both of my garage door springs are, long bar through the springs the width of the doors.....I had one break on me a while back....couldn't figure out what that noise was until we tried the electric door opener, door would not open.....had a company come out and replace both springs