If your garage door starts malfunctioning, it might be worth learning how to fix a garage door roller off track. Unless you fix the problem immediately, you won’t be able to get your car in or out of your garage.
The most common reason for garage doors coming off the track is improper installation and maintenance. If the door isn’t regularly inspected and lubricated, the tracks can become dry and brittle, which can cause them to break or bend.
Hiring a garage repair service is the best way to repair an off-track garage door. If the issue is apparent and easy to solve, you can do a simple DIY job. However, if you fear that you’ll damage your garage doors more, feel free to hire garage door repair professionals.
If your garage door is off-track, you won’t be able to get your car in or out of your garage before repairing it. After a quick garage repair job, you can start implementing preventive measures to mitigate or even avoid future garage off-track problems.
Table of Contents
Fix Garage Door Roller Off-Track – The Signs to Look Out For When Dealing with a Faulty Garage Door
Before calling in professional services or getting into a DIY of your own, you should identify the source of your garage door problem. Once you find the reason, you should have a good idea of how to put a garage door bottom roller back on track.
Rollers Hanging Loose from the Tracks
If the rollers on your garage entrance’s door end up hanging loose over your tracks, they’ll eventually fall out of place. Therefore, try and pay attention to when your garage door rollers hang loose to put them back into place before they fall off track.
Garage Door Rollers Positioned at an Odd Angle
Over time and repeated use, the rollers can shift around in the track and end up positioning themselves at an odd angle. The next time you try to go through your garage entrance, you’ll end up with a stuck door due to the bottom garage door rollers going off-track.
Therefore, pay attention to your rollers to avoid ending up with a faulty garage door.
What Are Some Precautionary Steps to Take?
If you’re not sure how to fix your garage door, hire professional services. Furthermore, never try to force your garage door open. This pressure will only cause more damage, and you might have to end up replacing your rollers, tracks, or entire garage entrance system.
With good luck, you’ll get away with a few more rollers falling out of place without damaging the whole track.
What are the Steps on How to Fix Garage Door Roller Off Track?
Regardless of whether you hire professionals to take care of your home, these are the steps you need to take to fix off-track rollers –
Step 1 – Disconnect the main power to your garage door – this forces the system into manual operation mode and gives you the freedom to move the door according to your repair needs.
Step 2 – Identify a part of the track you need to guide a roller and hold it open using vice grips. Once you have the rollers ready, remove the vice grip.
Step 3 – Next, you’ll have to close the track. Here, grab a small mallet and hammer the track to revert it to its original position.
Step 4 – Clean the track and remove all dirt and grime – this is essential, as you wouldn’t want to end up with off-track rollers again right after you go through setting them in place.
Step 5 – Apply plenty of lubrication so your rollers don’t fall out of place again.
Step 6 – Check the door to ensure it’s working correctly and all rollers are in place.
Step 7 – Reattach power and ensure automatic mode is working.
What Are the Common Causes for Garage Door Rollers Going Off-Track?
Most garage doors have anywhere between 10 to 12 rollers on a track. With regular use, it’s not unheard of for them to go off-track. There are a few main reasons garage door rollers go off-track – dirt, damaged tracks, and lack of lubricant, to name a few.
Keeping an eye out and preventing most of them is one of the first steps you should take when learning how to fix garage door roller off-track problems.
Damaged Tracks:
The track and roller system is a moving system used multiple times a day as family members pull their cars out and bring them back in. Therefore, over time, you should expect some wear on the tracks, which will, in turn, cause the rollers to go off-track.
Misaligned or Loose Tracks
Another symptom of repeated use is misaligned tracks – after some damage and wear, your tracks will misalign and push the rollers off-track.
Dirt and Grime Build-up
When the rollers try to move over a track with dust and dirt, it might end up pushing the rollers off-track. And with that, you now know what causes a garage door to come off the track and some small preventive measures you can take.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQ
Q1. Should you rely on professional help?
Q2. What Preventive Measures Can I Take?
Q3. How to replace garage door rollers without bending track
Q4. How to put a garage door bottom roller back on track?
Conclusion
You should always try to hire professionals to help repair your garage door should your rollers fall out of place. Therefore, if you’re wondering how to fix your garage door roller off track, get in touch with local professionals, and they’ll get things fixed up quickly.
If you’re unlucky, you might have to replace your garage door rollers if they end up getting damaged in addition to falling off-track.
