OT: Garage door howls like a tortured weasel

Not that I've ever tortured a weasel, but...

The door squeals horribly going up or down. Any standard solutions?

Thanks!

What kind of door? Tracked or roll-up? If you've already lubed guide wheels, etc, have you had a look at the front edge of the door vs the face frame? I had one that squealed like that at the point where the last segment started to tilt back. Turned out that the bottom lip of that bottom segment was rubbing on the doorframe for a few inches as it made the 'turn'.

bosleyjr said:

Any standard solutions?

Click to expand...

Not really. You'll probably have to troubleshoot and figure it out. Simple things, but made and installed as cheap as possibly.

At 18 years old I installed garage doors and openers for a flat fee of $35 each. I grossed a bit over $83,000 that year. I did over 120 8x7 WD's with openers in one 18 hour day once. 4.5 minutes per piece average.

Remove any entangled mustelidae? Wear earplugs? Leave door up?

Have to agree with Gordon, we need more info to help. Or actuate the door a few times from inside the garage while using a decibel meter app on your phone to find the loudest zone, and focus on that area.

It’s not a bearing. Bearings don’t make the tortured weasel sound. The door is out of alignment causing the metal edge of the door to rub against the track. Like fingernails on a chalkboard. Could be one of the wheels is broken or has jumped out of the track.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Panel door or roll up?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Un-trip the door from the motorized mechanism to see if it is the door itself or the opener.

Bob
WB8NQW

Not an expert hear. Just my door used to make all sorts of racket. I lubed up the spring on the bar across the head of my door and it hasn't made a noise since.

Like any other piece of machinery, look for interference points and wear patterns.........Bob

Squirt the rollers with chain and cable lube or one of the specialized sprays recommended for garage doors. The bearings in the rollers take a lot of stress.

If lube doesn't do it you probably need new rollers.

Garwood said:

Not really. You'll probably have to troubleshoot and figure it out. Simple things, but made and installed as cheap as possibly.

At 18 years old I installed garage doors and openers for a flat fee of $35 each. I grossed a bit over $83,000 that year. I did over 120 8x7 WD's with openers in one 18 hour day once. 4.5 minutes per piece average.

Click to expand...

Holy cats. Were these in a new subdivision or something? Walk from one condo to the next one? That's impressive as hell.

I used silicone spray lube on the squeaky wheels on my garage door, quieted right down.

Squeals without the opener connected. Seems to be the wheels rubbing against the rails.

I see that Silicon Grease is one option recommended (with results reported by jancollc, thanks!). Believe it or not, there's also something called garage door grease(!) Who knew? Apparently some heavy petroleum distillates (C13-C14), with a couple percent each of mineral oil and dimethylsiloxane. So I'm guessing silicon grease will work great. Thanks all.

Applied Silicone/Teflon grease to the wheels, and spray to the rails. About 95% there. I think that the little shafts on the wheels that slide in and out are also making noise. This is due to the original install when the house was built. There are concrete protrusions in the garage that kept the rails from being installed plumb. I've improved it, but still, those little axles (which should remain in the same place always in a plumb/level setup) move in and out.

But it's quieter. Will get some grease on those axles and I think we'll be in good shape. Thanks, all.

And I learned that there is garage door grease...

If it has the coil spring mounted to the header above the door lube the coils. The friction of the coils against themselves makes the opener work that much harder. If the door is adjusted properly you should be able to open it with the opener disconnected by hand with little effort. It should be able to stay open about 2' and neither drop or rise. If it falls the springs need adjustment. Just don't do what I did! One of my springs broke took it to GDS (Garage Door Supply). Got two new springs, mounting rod, cables etc. I put everything together and with no reference as to how many turns of tension I gave it what I THOUGHT was a good starting point. I won't say I gave it a little too much tension but if it weren't for the door opener being a bumper/stop it probably would've ended up in the backyard!
Found out later the stripe painted on the springs is to count the number of turns t balance the springs with each other and gauge the tension. Once I got the proper tension I wrote the number of turns on the header at the adjusters so I wouldn't do that again. That being said, if you aren't comfortable adjusting these leave it to someone who's done it before. You need 2) 1/2" X 15" rods (length approx) and 2) wrenches that fit the locking screw. One wrench to work with and the other within reach should you be resisting the tension and drop the wrench you using. You don't want to let the rods get away from you. People have been seriously injured/killed working on these. There was a post on door spring accidents a couple years ago. Sorry for the ramble.

Replace the rollers with nylon ball-bearing rollers. Make sure that they all roll unimpeded and adjust the brackets accordingly.