Sears Garage Door Closing Problem..

20 years ago

If someone can give me some advice I would really appreciate it.

We just went on a week long vacation and we had not had any problems with the garage opener prior to leaving. But we had a person feeding the pets and they could not get the door to close. So they just kept trying the remote and got it to close but continued to have problems.

So we returned and the door opened and closed and the next morning it did it to me and this morning my wife could not get it down.

Now when you push the remote the light just starts flashing and the door does not move and the next time the door starts to move and stops and the light starts flashing. The sensors are clean and have green lights and there is a light flashing green on the back of the unit on the ceiling. The unit is about 9 years old so should I call someone for service or just replace the entire thing? By the way it goes up fine but it does have a clicking sound while raising the door. I have sprayed all of the rollers and checked all of the hardware.

Thanks

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Comments (7)

Don_
20 years ago
If when you try to close the door the main light turns on and off 10 times you have a sensor problem. Make sure the lights on the sensors are on solid and not flickering. You sometimes have to get real close to see the flickering. The small green light flashing on the rear of the motor unit is normal if it is random. It will flash codes to help diagnose some problems but they are pretty obvious. You can override the door sensors by holding the wall button in until the door is closed. Try tweaking those sensors and see if that helps.
cklamer
Original Author
20 years ago
Hi Don,
Yeah I went home early yesterday and I checked the sensors and the receiver sensors green light was barely visible so I moved it around and nothing changed so I believe I just have a bad sensor. Do I need to have someone come out and replace that or is it something I can do myself this weekend? Will I be able to purchase new sensors at Sears or Lowes? Also the door will go down when you hold the button down inside the garage.

By the way if I have someone come out and replace the sensors it is going to cost me about $150.00 because I kind of live out in the country about 40-50 miles from the closest service agent.

Thanks for the help.

CK
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Don_
20 years ago
Changing the sensors is easy as pie and can be purchased from Sears. I'm not sure about Lowes. Make sure you connect the solid white wire to the solid white wire and the wire with a black tracer to the wire with a black tracer. You do not have to worry about getting shocked as there is basically nothing there.
harleysmom
20 years ago
I'm having the same problem that cklamer is having with the garage door not wanting to close and the lights flashing. I have to go to the wall button and hold it down until it closes. I've cleaned my sensors and I have the green lights, but still it has been such a pain!! I've had this problem for two years straight and it ONLY happens when the weather turns cool in fall and winter. During warm months, no problems at all with it. I've even gone so far at to have a lighter weight door put up and new tracks, thinking maybe that my other door was too heavy. I was wondering, since there are no kids or pets around to get caught under the door, would it be okay to disconnect the sensors and how difficult would that be?? Do you think that would help with my problem? Thanks!!
Don_
20 years ago
There is absolutely no way you can bypass or eliminate the sensors. After two years, a new door and tracks have you had a technician look at your problem? I wish you lived in my neighborhood.
doorguy06
20 years ago
harleysmom

Grab the wires at the back of the sensors and wiggle them. I'd bet you got the old style photo eyes. They are bigger and rectangular in shape and have a bolt going all the way through them. If the lights flicker then you have a bad connection at the photo eye and they should be replaced. The newer ones do not have a two prong plug anymore.
criswell_patrick_yahoo_com
15 years ago
My dad put in a used Sears garage door and we (my family members are electricians) have no open circuits going to the sensors. Here is the problem, you plug in the sender unit and the green light comes on but when we plug in the receiving unit the sending unit light goes off, therefore the door will not lower unless you use the wall unit button and hold the button down until it reaches the floor, if not then the door will reverse and go back up. Bad sensor, right?