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Trapped, in our own garage

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Picture the scene: Fran's about to take the Tesla out for the morning, and the garage door has decided this is the day it gives up.

It would whirr to life, lift just enough to taunt us, then refuse to budge any further. Nowhere near enough to drive a Tesla through. The door had been a fraction slower to open over the previous few days, but I'd put that down to the cold autumn mornings. Apparently it had been building to retirement.

I had absolutely no idea what was actually wrong, so I did the modern equivalent of waving frantically at a passing tradie — I messaged Jesse at JB Garage Doors & Gates at 9.07 am with a couple of bewildered photos of the door's innards. Six minutes later he replied: a torsion spring. Sure enough, scrolling back through my own photos, there it was — that long black thing across the top, snapped clean in two with the original installer's orange "CAUTION — SPRING IS LOCKED" tag still cheerfully dangling off it. $550 to swap the pair, 3–5 pm slot the same day. Glorious.

In the meantime, I helped the motor lift the door enough to spring the Tesla from captivity. Closing it again via the remote, the door went visibly skewed — one side travelling further than the other, with only one good spring left to share the load. Stylish.

Jesse turned up just after 3 pm and swapped both springs as a matched pair. Done by 3.45 pm. Invoice in, paid by 6.30 pm. Trapped at breakfast, free by dinner.

Ever been locked out of your own garage?

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21 comments

  1. Mark West via Facebook ↗
    today's entertainment
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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      Mark West Entertaining, in retrospect 😉

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  2. Jannette Cass-Dunbar via Facebook ↗
    Yes, and by our electronic driveway gate too. One of the garage door times was a torsion spring like yours, another time the motor. The gate was a motor that was an obsolete model and irreparable so had to be replaced. We had two opinions on the gate. While waiting for suitable replacement motors we had the gate manually released and tied together with an octopus strap to keep the dogs in the yard.
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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      Jannette Cass-Dunbar Necessity is the mother of invention 😉.
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  3. Stephen Loo via Facebook ↗
    Those springs make a heck of a bang when they snap and the garage door drops.
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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      Stephen Loo Yeah, there's a lot of door weight being held up.
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  4. Kylie Gilroy via Facebook ↗
    Yep, when we have a blackout 🙄
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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      Kylie Gilroy Oddly, in a blackout, we could have just pulled the manual lever to open it. But without the spring, there's no counterweight to lift it.

      In a grid outage, we have house battery, so we don't actually get a blackout. But that's a side point.

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      1. Kylie Gilroy via Facebook ↗
        Tesla Tripping yep except our cord for the manual lever is in a bucket, that's another story, so we just don't go out if there's blackout 🤣

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  5. David Hirst via Facebook ↗
    Brilliant taking photos & sending them of straight away. You really know how to get things done quickly! Great work.
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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      David Hirst I like how you give me the credit for fixing it. At least that’s how I choose to read it 😉.
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  6. Alan Jones via Facebook ↗
    You need to lubricate those springs or they stick to themselves in places, making only part of the spring do the work, and that part doesn't like doing all the work.
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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      Alan Jones Ah, good to know. Thank you. Is that something to do every couple of years?

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      1. Alan Jones via Facebook ↗
        Tesla Tripping the guy that told me said every change of season, 4 times a year. I now spray mine with WD40
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  7. Karl Jensen via Facebook ↗
    Great service and YES happens all the time.

    Note that this is actually a pretty easy DIY fix.

    Did mine the other day.
    They fail every 5 years at our place with 6-10cycles a day.

    VEVOR Garage Door Torsion Springs, Pair of 5.54 x 50.8 x 610 mm, 16000 Cycles, Garage Door Springs with Non-Slip Winding Bars, Gloves and Mounting Wrench, Electrophoresis Coated for Replacement | VEVOR AU https://share.google/hxKC9KOVZY6vDWCve

    Pair of 850mm springs for my 2.5 wide panel lift door $100.
    Took me 2 hrs and I've never done it before and a tradie is $300 the first hour so you did OK
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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      Karl Jensen Thanks for the details!

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  8. Nick O'Brien via Facebook ↗
    Surely it would have opened manually, that’s what the rope is for to disengage the motor.

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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      Nick O'Brien I thought so too, but no. The springs counterbalance the door. When the springs are broken, there’s too much downward force on the door to lift it from the rope.

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      1. Adam Williams via Facebook ↗
        Tesla Tripping you lift the garage door up itself from the base, get in a sumo squat position, two people help. You don't pull on the 'rope' to lift it up, that just disengages the chain from the motor, allowing you to than manually (physically), lift the garage door up.

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  9. Tyson Finn via Facebook ↗
    This just happened to me . $60 for couple of springs
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    1. Tesla Tripping eTripping.au
      Tyson Finn Wow. Nicely done.

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