How can I tell if my garage door spring is broken without opening the door?

Start with a look, not a lift

Stand inside the garage and look at the steel shaft running across the top of the door. On most OKC homes the torsion spring (or pair of springs) is mounted on that shaft. A healthy spring is one continuous coil. A broken one has an obvious separation, usually about two inches wide, where the steel snapped and the two halves unwound away from each other. You can spot it from ten feet away with a flashlight, and you never have to touch the door to do it.

If your springs are the stretchy kind mounted above the horizontal tracks (extension springs, common on older homes in Del City, Bethany, and parts of south OKC), look for a spring dangling, a hook pulled loose, or one side hanging noticeably lower than the other.

Five signs you can spot without moving the door

• You heard one loud bang. A torsion spring lets go with a sound homeowners routinely mistake for a firework or something falling off a shelf. It is the most common story we hear on the phone.
• Slack or tangled cables. The lift cables on each side should be taut. Loose, drooping, or unwound cables almost always mean the spring that tensioned them is gone.
• The door sits crooked. One corner higher than the other by an inch or more points to a failed spring or a cable that jumped its drum.
• The opener groans and gives up. A modern LiftMaster or Chamberlain will sense the extra load, lift six inches, then reverse or stop. That safety behavior is protecting the motor from lifting dead weight.
• A gap at the top panel. A door hanging slightly off its normal closed position can indicate the counterbalance quit while the door was in motion.

Why testing it yourself is a bad idea

A 16x7 insulated double door weighs 200 to 300 pounds. With the spring intact, it feels like 8 to 10 pounds because the spring carries the rest. With the spring broken, you would be deadlifting the full weight, and if it slips it comes down fast enough to crush fingers, feet, or a car bumper. Openers are not built to lift that load either; forcing one can strip the gear or bend the rail, turning a spring job into a opener repair on top of it.

What the fix costs around OKC

Torsion spring replacement pricing in the OKC metro depends on the spring size and whether you replace one or both — call (405) 247-0336 for a free, no-pressure estimate. We stock the common sizes on every truck, so most calls in Oklahoma City, Edmond, Moore, and Norman are fixed in a single visit, usually within 20 to 50 minutes of your call. See our spring replacement service for details, and if your car is trapped before work, our 24/7 emergency service carries no after-hours surcharge. Wondering whether to do one spring or two? Read our answer on replacing both springs.