Key facts in 20 seconds
- There is no safe temporary fix for a broken garage door spring. Clamps, wire, welding and zip ties do not hold. The fix is a new spring.
- Do not run the opener. It was never built to lift the door alone. Unplug it so nobody presses the button by habit.
- If the door is closed, leave it closed. If the car is trapped and you must get out, two adults can lift the door by hand. The steps are below.
- If the door is stuck open, do not pull the red cord. With a broken spring the door can drop.
- Prices from my cost calculator: one spring $150 to $350 installed, cables $200 to $300. Code SPRINGS waives the service call and adds free cables through December 10, 2026. (763) 265-7671, usually within the hour.
People type “temporary fix for broken garage door spring” into Google, usually at 6 in the morning, with the car inside and work in 40 minutes. I know because I am the one who gets the call ten minutes later. So here is the honest answer from the person who replaces these springs every day in St. Louis Park, Edina, Richfield, Bloomington and Minneapolis: there is no temporary fix for the spring. But there is a safe way to get through tonight, and that is what this page is for.
First, make sure it is the spring
A broken torsion spring is easy to spot. Look at the bar above the closed door. The spring is one long coil. When it breaks you see a gap of an inch or two in the coil, and most people heard it go: a bang like something heavy fell in the garage. Other signs: the opener hums and the door lifts six inches and stops, the door feels very heavy by hand, or the cables hang loose at the sides.
Older single-stall doors, and there are thousands of them in St. Louis Park, Richfield and south Minneapolis, often have extension springs that run along the horizontal tracks. When one of those breaks, one side of the door goes up and the other does not, and the door hangs crooked.
If you are not sure, my garage door troubleshooter walks through the symptoms in a minute.
Why the “temporary fixes” you see online do not work
The spring is not a small part. It does the lifting. A 16-foot insulated door can weigh more than 200 pounds, and the spring is wound to carry almost all of it. The opener only guides the door. That is why none of these hold:
- Clamping or wiring the two broken halves together. The spring works by twisting. A clamp cannot hold that twist, and when it slips it slips all at once.
- Welding the spring. Heat ruins the temper of spring steel. It breaks again next to the weld, usually within days.
- Running the door on the one good spring. On a two-spring door the second spring is the same age as the first and is now carrying double. The opener strains, the top section bends, and a cable jumps the drum. I see this every week, and it turns a spring job into an emergency off-track repair that starts at $450.
- Turning up the opener force. This only lets the opener hurt itself and the door faster.
From my own jobs: winding a new torsion spring with winding bars, the broken springs that came off, and a cable that came off the drum and left the door crooked.
What you can safely do tonight
If the door is closed
This is the good case. Leave it closed. Unplug the opener or tape a note over the wall button. The house is secure, nothing is going to fall, and the repair can wait until I get there. If you can take another car, a ride or the bus, do that and skip the next part.
If the car is trapped and you have to get out
Do this only with two adults who can lift. If you have any doubt, call first; I would rather come at 6 AM than have you hurt your back or your foot.
- With the door fully closed, pull the red cord to disconnect the opener.
- One person on each side. Lift from the bottom, evenly, with your legs. Without the spring you are lifting the real weight of the door.
- When the door is all the way up, clamp locking pliers or a C-clamp on the vertical track just under the bottom roller, on both sides. Do not trust the door to stay up without them.
- Back the car out.
- Remove the clamps and lower the door together, slowly, all the way down. Keep feet clear. Do not leave it open; a door without a spring that slips comes down hard.
If the door is stuck open or halfway
Do not pull the red cord and do not stand under it. Keep kids, pets and cars out of the opening, clamp the tracks under the bottom rollers if you can reach them safely from the side, and call. This one I treat as an emergency, day or night.
What the real repair looks like
I measure the broken spring and the door, fit a spring matched to the door weight, replace both springs on a two-spring door so they wear together, and check the cables, drums, bearings and bottom brackets while everything is apart. In Minnesota the bottom of the cables and the bottom brackets rust from road salt, so a spring job is the right time to replace cables. Then I balance the door: it should stay where you leave it at half height. Most spring jobs take under an hour, and repairs carry my 1-year labor warranty.
Full details and photos are on my garage door spring repair page, and the current spring offer is at special offers.
Why springs break on the first cold mornings
A spring is rated for a number of open-and-close cycles, and every family uses those up at a different speed. Steel is also more brittle in the cold, so a spring that was near the end in October often lets go on the first hard-frost morning in November. If your door has started to feel heavy, or the opener sounds like it is working harder, that is the warning. My guide to doors that will not open in the cold covers the other winter causes.
Broken spring questions
Is there a temporary fix for a broken garage door spring?
No safe one. A torsion or extension spring carries the whole weight of the door, and nothing you can clamp, wire, weld or tape onto a broken spring will carry that weight again. What you can do tonight is make the door safe: leave it closed, unplug the opener so nobody runs it, and get the car out by hand only if you truly must. The repair itself is a new spring, and it usually takes me under an hour.
Can I open my garage door with a broken spring?
Only by hand, only with two strong adults, and only if you have to. Without the spring you are lifting the full weight of the door, often 130 to 200 pounds or more for a double door. Lift evenly from both sides, clamp locking pliers on the track under the bottom roller to hold it up, get the car out, and lower it slowly. Do not use the opener, and do not leave the door open.
Can I use the opener if only one of the two springs is broken?
No. With one spring gone the opener is lifting half the door by itself. It may move the door once or twice, and then it strips the gear, bends the top section or pulls a cable off the drum. That turns a spring repair into a spring, opener and door repair.
How much does it cost to replace a broken garage door spring in the Twin Cities?
On my cost calculator a single spring is $150 to $350 installed, depending on door size and spring type. Cables, if they need replacing, are $200 to $300. Through December 10, 2026 the code SPRINGS waives the service call and includes new cables free with a spring replacement.
How fast can you come out for a broken spring?
Usually within about an hour in St. Louis Park, Edina, Richfield, Bloomington and Minneapolis, any day of the week. There is no extra charge on weekends. A night fee applies only after 9 PM. Call (763) 265-7671.
