DFC

Please help, anyone know of a good body shop in SE Michigan? I will probably also need a good trim shop recomendation as well.

OK, the Reader's Digest version.

I took vacation time this Thursday and Friday to install my aluminum pedals and spend some quality time with my car. Needed to run to the hardware store, when I returned, I opened the garage door, and as I was admiring the georgeous rear of my P-car tucked safely in the garage - it happened! The door began to rise unevenly, the door rollers started dropping to the ground, the door detached from the track, and yes, it fell on my car.

I could not (and still don't) believe this happened, the door is bent and ruined, the opener drive is bowed and the unit was angled down, a total catastrophe.

Fortunately, the body damage is minor due to the light cheap a$$ door (I can only see one quarter sized ding), but my top got scratched also. I will need to get the car into the light to see better.

Currently, my insurance says I must file 2 claims (home and auto), even though it is one incident (I guess this is how they get you to pay 2 deductibles... ) and I cannot get the door fixed until I can get an estimate and cause of damage, and I can't get my car out of the garage since the door got wedged into the opening and is off its track. My vacation will be spent dealing with this and not driving my car

Wellardmac

Not cool Sorry to hear of your accident.

gota911

WOW, talk about your freak accident! That really sucks, big time!

Wellardmac

Well, it's funny that this came up, as last year we had our garage doors serviced (I don't remember what exactly went wrong) and the guy that did the service warned us about this exact thing happening if the retaining pins were not changed out periodically. I figured it was bogus, but now I know better.

DFC

Thanks guys, it's been a trying few days. I couldn't believe my eyes while it was happening

Wellardmac

I can only imagine the horror.

I believe that my wife said the serivce guy told her about some warning signs of wear on the pins and bearings. I'll ask her if she remembers what they were.

DFC

I had a door company out today, turns out the spring broke and it was a cheap door with only one spring, so when it went, all hell broke loose. It caused the door to rise unevenly and put a big weight strain on the opener (which bent and got pulled down on an angle in the process). Once the door got crooked and the motor was still pulling, the wheels that hold the door in the tracks started popping off and dropping like rain - then there wasn't much left to hold the door in place.

Needless to say, I am having a new opener and door with a double spring installed tomorrow!

Wellardmac

Youch! I guess we got lucky in having doors with double springs.

The service call I mentioned above was when the spring broke on my door. My wife reminded me of why we had the doors serviced - she couldn't remember what the supposed warning signs were, but she said that the service guy said that it's good to have the mechanisms checked periodically for wear and tear to prevent this from happening.

We've actually had the springs break on both doors... so, I guess that gives the mechanisms a lifetime of around 10 years, so it's probably best to have the inspected every 8 years or so.

Patrick

Automark and Autometric both have good reputations.

DFC

I learned a valuable, painful, and expensive lesson. I will make sure to ask the installer today what to look for as far as future wear. I may need therapy to stop the nightmares when its all over!

Wellardmac

Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that this happened. I honestly thought my wife was insane when she said that she'd had the guy replace the pins and bearings on the doors. I guess she was smarter than I thought. I'd never heard of this happening before.

DFC

Thanks Patrick, I appreciate it.

gota911

We had a spring break a few years back. That is when I firured out why they run the wire cable through the center of the spring. When the end or the broke off, rather than flying off like a projectile, the spring just ran down the cable and stopped at the other end of the wire. That could have killed someone if the spring had not been threaded on the wire.

Wellardmac

Yeah, it makes quite a noise when it goes. I thought something had hit the house when the first one of ours broke.

I remembered one of the symptoms of bearing wear - the door starts getting jumpy and loses it's smoothness when opening and closing.

DFC

Tim - I will be paying very close attention on this installation, my door, opener, spring, cables, and rollers are all a jumbled and tangled bent mess and I really want to learn how this d@mn thing works since I have never really thought about it before. You are absolutely right about the danger, my door was light and cheap, and it did fall on me too when i tried to get if off my car, I don't even want to think if it was a heavy door, or my wife or daughter were there. The only thing hurt was my car and bank account, and although it sucks, it could have been much worse!