Garage door cables work alongside your torsion springs to carry the full weight of the door through every open and close cycle. When a cable snaps, frays, or slips off the drum, the door becomes unbalanced, gets stuck, or drops on one side entirely. It's a repair that needs to be handled quickly and correctly.
Smooth Lift Garage Doors provides professional garage door cable repair and replacement throughout Reno, NV. With over a decade of experience working on overhead door systems, we diagnose cable failures accurately, replace cables with correctly sized components for your door, and check the full system before leaving to make sure everything is running safely.
Cable problems usually show up in one of these ways before or after a full failure:
If you're seeing any of these symptoms, stop using the door until it's been inspected. Running a door with a failed cable puts additional strain on the opener, springs, and tracks.
At Smooth Lift Garage Doors, every cable repair includes a full inspection of both cables, the drums, and the bottom brackets before any replacement work begins. Cables are sized to match your specific door weight and height requirements. Both cables are replaced at the same time in most cases since they wear at the same rate, keeping the door balanced and preventing a second service call in the near future. After replacement, the door is tested for even travel and correct tension before the job is considered complete.
The most common signs are a door that opens unevenly, a visible cable hanging loose along the track, or a door that won't open or close completely. If the door looks crooked at any point during travel, stop using it and call for an inspection. Operating a door with a broken cable can cause further damage to the springs, opener, and track system.
It is not recommended. Garage door cables are under significant tension from the spring system, and improper handling during removal or reinstallation can cause injury or additional damage. A professional replacement ensures the cable is correctly sized, properly seated on the drum, and tensioned evenly on both sides of the door.
In most cases yes. Cables wear at similar rates, so when one fails the other is typically close behind. Replacing both at the same time keeps the door balanced and avoids a second service call within a short period.