--- title: "I Hit My Garage Door With My Car" page_title: "Car Hit the Garage Door? What to Do First | Mesa AZ" description: "What to check after a vehicle hits a garage door, why the first cycle does the most extra damage, and how to document it before anyone touches the door." url: "https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/car-hit-garage-door/" type: "door-symptom" published: "2026-09-01T19:28:16Z" modified: "2026-09-01T19:36:12Z" publisher: "Farnsworth Garage Door Service, Mesa, AZ" phone: "(602) 935-9766" --- # I Hit My Garage Door With My Car It happens to careful people. Someone reverses while the door is still coming up, a driver in a hurry pulls out before the door has cleared, a teenager misjudges the depth of the garage. The moment afterward is always the same: a bad noise, a dent, and a strong urge to press the button and find out how bad it is. Don't. Whatever the door looks like from the driveway, the impact went somewhere. Vehicle contact loads the bottom section, and from there it travels into the roller, up the vertical track, into the bracket holding that track to the wall, and into the bottom bracket where the lift cable anchors. None of those are visible from where you're standing, and the first cycle after an impact reliably does more additional damage than the impact itself. So this page is deliberately in order. Make it safe, look at specific things, photograph it properly, then decide. The repair conversation comes after all of that. ⚠ **High risk — leave this to a technician** Involves high-tension components or the door’s full weight. This is where people get badly hurt. This is general guidance based on what we see on service calls — it isn’t a substitute for someone looking at your actual door. Every door is a little different, and if anything here feels beyond what you want to take on, stop and [give us a call](tel:+16029359766). ## Do this first Right now, before anything else: make sure nobody is under or near the door, and don't operate it. That includes not testing it, not raising it to get the car out, and not pulling the emergency release to move it by hand. An impact can bend a bottom bracket, kink a lift cable, bow a vertical track or knock a jamb bracket loose without any of it being visible. Each of those changes what is holding the door's weight. Running the door in that state is what turns a bent track into a door off its track, and what turns a compromised cable into a failed one. If the vehicle is still in contact with the door, leave it there for now — it may be holding load. Unplug the opener so nobody can operate it by remote, app or wall button. Keep children and pets out of the garage, and lock the door between the garage and the house if the opening can't be secured. An opening left standing wide after an impact is what [24-7 emergency garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-repair-service-installation/24-7-emergency-garage-door-repair/) gets called out for. [Call (602) 935-9766](tel:+16029359766) Start Here ## What to check in the next 10 minutes Once nobody is at risk, these are the five things worth looking at. All of them are looking. None of them involve moving the door. 1. 1 **Establish whether the vehicle is still bearing on the door** Look at where the bumper or body meets the door and at the door's bottom edge. If the door is leaning on the car, or the car is wedged against a section, the vehicle may be carrying part of the door's load. Backing out in that state can let a section drop or spring toward you. You’ll know it worked when: You can say whether the two are in contact and whether the door is resting on the vehicle. 2. 2 **Look at both vertical tracks from top to bottom** Take a light and follow each track from the floor to where it curves. You're looking for a bow, a kink, a section pushed away from the wall, or a bracket where the lag bolts have pulled out of the jamb and left the track hanging on part of its fixing. Compare the two sides — the undamaged one is the reference. You’ll know it worked when: You can describe how each track looks compared with the other. 3. 3 **Check both lift cables** The cables run from the bottom corners of the door up to drums at the ends of the shaft above the opening. Look at both from a safe distance without touching them. A cable that is slack, that has come off its drum, that has jumped a groove, or that has visible broken strands has changed the entire load picture on that side of the door. You’ll know it worked when: You know whether both cables are taut, seated and undamaged. 4. 4 **Look at the bottom brackets** Each bottom corner of the lowest section carries a bracket the cable anchors into, and impacts at the bottom of a door land close to them. Look for a bracket that is no longer flat against the section, bolts that have pulled, or the section deformed around one. Look only — those brackets are under the full spring load, and our bottom bracket page explains exactly why they get treated differently from every other fastener. You’ll know it worked when: You have looked at both bottom corners and can describe what you saw. 5. 5 **Sight the door for square and plane** Stand back and look at the door as a whole. Is the bottom edge parallel to the floor? Does one side sit further out than the other? Does one section sit proud of its neighbors? An impact that pushes the door out of square has moved something in the running gear, whether or not you can see which part. You’ll know it worked when: You can say whether the door is hanging the way it did yesterday. ## Can it wait, or is this a call now? Most of these can be scheduled. A few genuinely can't, and the difference is worth knowing at the point you're standing in the driveway. Are the **cables taut and seated**, both **tracks straight**, and the door **hanging square**? Yes to all three — the damage looks confined to the door face **What that means:** This is very likely a schedulable repair rather than an emergency. Leave the door closed, photograph everything, and get it assessed before it's operated again. The point of not running it is that the assessment happens on the damage from the impact rather than on the damage from the impact plus three test cycles. **Where to go next:** Read causes 1 and 2, then the documentation steps in cause 7. No — a cable is slack or off, a track is bent, or the door is tipped **What that means:** The load path through the door has changed. What is holding it up right now is not what was holding it up this morning, and the parts that have moved are the ones under spring tension. This is a call now, and the door doesn't move in the meantime. **Where to go next:** Read causes 3, 4 and 5. Don't operate the door. The car is still touching the door **What that means:** Sort that out before making any other judgment, and do it slowly. If the door is resting on the vehicle, moving the vehicle removes support from a door that may no longer have its own. **Where to go next:** Read cause 6. If you genuinely can't tell — the light is bad, the cables are hard to see, the door is partly up — treat it as the second answer. The cost of being wrong that way is one night with a car parked in the driveway. ## Which kind of impact was it? The type of contact predicts what got damaged and where to look. Reversed into a fully closed door Load into the bottom section, straight back into the vertical tracks and the bottom brackets. [Jump to that fix ↓](#cause-1) Pulled forward into a closed door Same load path, often with the bumper riding up under the bottom edge and lifting it. [Jump to that fix ↓](#cause-1) Drove out while the door was still coming down The door catches on the vehicle's roof or trunk and is lifted or dragged out of its travel. [Jump to that fix ↓](#cause-2) Backed out before the door had finished opening Contact high on the door, often bending the horizontal track or the opener arm. [Jump to that fix ↓](#cause-2) A light bump with a visible dent and nothing else Possibly cosmetic — but the load still went into the track, so it gets checked before it gets dismissed. [Jump to that fix ↓](#cause-3) The door came off its track in the impact Nobody operates the door. The counterbalance has to be dealt with before anything is repositioned. [Jump to that fix ↓](#cause-5) It happened days ago and the door has been used since The assessment now includes what the cycling added on top of the impact. [Jump to that fix ↓](#cause-4) ## Where the force actually goes A garage door isn't a wall. It's a hanging assembly, restrained by two vertical tracks bolted to the jambs and held up by cables under spring tension. So when a vehicle pushes on it, the load doesn't stop where the bumper stops. It goes into the section, out to the end stiles, into the roller stems, and from the rollers into the vertical track. The track transfers it into the brackets lagged into the wood or masonry jamb. That's the path, and every step in it can move. The most common invisible outcome is a vertical track that has bowed slightly or been pushed away from the jamb, because the fixing that holds it is a handful of lag screws into a jamb that has been dry-baking in a Valley garage for fifteen years. The track can go back to looking almost straight and still be sitting a quarter inch off where it was, which is enough to bind a roller. The second path is downward through the bottom of the door, into the bottom brackets. Those two brackets are the anchor points for the lift cables — they carry the entire load the springs are holding. A bracket that has been struck, twisted, or had its fasteners loaded is the one component on this list where the failure mode is sudden rather than gradual. That's the whole reason the advice on this page is to look rather than to test. A test cycle applies the door's full weight through whichever of those parts has moved, and it usually finds the weakest one. **Vertical track** The channel each roller runs in, bolted to the jamb. The main path an impact takes out of the door. **Jamb bracket** The fixing holding the track to the wall. Lag screws into wood, and impacts pull them. **Bottom bracket** The cable anchor at each bottom corner. Under the full spring load, which is why it's looked at rather than touched. **End stile** The vertical channel at each end of a section. Carries the hinges and roller stems and takes the impact load outward. The short version: the dent is the part you can see, and it's rarely the part that decides the repair. ## What each finding means Match what you found in the triage checks. The urgency column is our honest read. | What you’re seeing | Most likely cause | How urgent | Who should fix it | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Dent in one section, tracks straight, cables taut, door square** | Impact absorbed by the section — likely a panel conversation | Don't run it, schedule it | Call a pro | | **Vertical track visibly bowed or kinked** | Load transferred into the track — rollers will bind | Stop using it | Call a pro | | **Track pushed away from the jamb, lag screws proud** | The fixing has pulled out of the jamb | Stop using it | Call a pro | | **One cable slack or off its drum** | That side of the door has lost its support | Call now | Call a pro | | **Bottom bracket bent or not flat against the section** | The cable anchor has moved under full spring load | Call now | Call a pro | | **Bottom edge no longer parallel with the floor** | The door is hanging out of square — cable, drum or track | Call now | Call a pro | | **Door is jammed and won't move at all** | Something is bound. Applying more force finds the weakest part | Stop using it | Call a pro | | **Opener arm bent or bracket pulled from the top section** | Contact high on the door, or the door was forced against the opener | Stop using it | Call a pro | | **Two or three sections marked** | The impact spread — assessment covers the whole assembly | Stop using it | Call a pro | | **Door was cycled several times after the impact** | Additional wear layered on the original damage | Stop now | Call a pro | | **Vehicle still in contact with the door** | The car may be carrying load the door has lost | Handle before anything else | Call a pro | ## What’s actually causing it These are ordered the way we work through them on a real service call — cheapest and most common first, so you don’t start by replacing a part that was never the problem. 1 ### Contact with a closed door — the low-speed reverse High risk — call a technician The most common version by a wide margin, and usually at a speed nobody would describe as a collision. A car backing up at idle carries a great deal more energy than it feels like, and it delivers that energy into the bottom section at bumper height. What we typically find: the bottom section dented or creased, one or both bottom-section rollers pushed hard against the track, a vertical track bowed on the impact side, and the jamb bracket fixings loosened. Sometimes a bottom bracket that has been twisted a few degrees. The thing people underestimate is the jamb. Track brackets are lagged into wood, and a garage jamb in a Valley home has spent years in extreme dry heat. Those screws pull more easily than you'd expect, and a track that's a quarter inch out of position binds the roller every cycle from then on. How you can tell: Damage at bumper height on the lowest section or two, with the impact side of the door showing more track and roller involvement than the other. **Where to stop:** Don't run it once to see whether it still works. That single cycle drags a bound roller the full height of a bent track, and it's the difference between straightening a track and replacing it. 2 ### Contact with a moving door High risk — call a technician The other main version, and generally the more expensive one. Driving out while the door is still coming down — or backing out before it has finished opening — means the vehicle catches the door somewhere other than its face. The mechanics differ from a straight impact. A door caught by a moving vehicle gets lifted, dragged or twisted out of its normal travel rather than pushed backward. That can pull rollers out of the channel, bend the horizontal track above, distort the opener arm, tear the opener bracket from the top section, or rack the whole door out of square in one movement. It also frequently damages the vehicle more than the driver expects, because the point of contact is a door edge or a bottom section corner rather than a flat panel. Doors caught this way are the ones most likely to come off their track during the event itself, and they should be treated as an off-track door regardless of where they've ended up. How you can tell: Damage above bumper height, an opener arm that's bent or hanging, a door that's stopped part way, or scrape marks on the vehicle's roof or trunk lid. **Where to stop:** Don't try to run the door back to closed to secure the garage. A door that has been dragged out of its travel is very likely already partly out of its track, and powering it in either direction from there is how the rest of it leaves. 3 ### The bump that looks like nothing High risk — call a technician This deserves its own entry because it's the one that costs people money later. A light contact leaves a modest dent, the door still opens and closes, and the household concludes it got away with it. What often happened is that the door absorbed the impact by moving a track fixing a fraction of an inch. Nothing about that is visible, and nothing about it announces itself for weeks. Then a roller that has been running slightly hard against a track lip since the bump wears a flat, starts binding, and the door begins to shudder or scrape at one point in its travel. By the time anyone connects that noise to the impact, the wear is spread across a roller, a track and often the section's end stile. Whereas the original job was a track bracket re-anchored properly. The cheap version of this is a look after any contact, however light. The expensive version is a look after the noise starts. How you can tell: A visible dent with everything apparently working normally, and no obvious track or cable involvement. **Where to stop:** The judgment call here is genuine, and we'd rather be honest about it: a light dent on a door with straight tracks, taut cables and square hanging is one where continuing to use the door is a reasonable risk. What isn't reasonable is deciding that from the driveway without checking the tracks. 4 ### The door has been used since the impact High risk — call a technician Common, and worth its own entry because it changes what an assessment finds. Once a door with moved track or a bent bottom bracket has been run a few times, the damage is layered. The impact bent the track; the cycling wore the roller against it and worked the section's end stile. The impact loosened a jamb bracket; the cycling elongated the remaining fixings. The impact twisted a cable's approach to its drum; the cycling has been spooling it wrong ever since. None of that is a reason for guilt — almost everyone tests a door after hitting it, because the alternative feels like overreacting. It's a reason to stop now rather than to conclude the door is fine because it has worked five times. The tells that cycling has caused additional damage are noise and asymmetry: a scrape at the same point every time, a shudder as it starts, or a bottom edge that's no longer parallel with the concrete. How you can tell: The impact was days or weeks ago, the door has been in normal use, and it has developed a sound or a behavior it didn't have before. **Where to stop:** Stop using it now, even though it's been working. The failures that follow this pattern — a cable leaving its drum, a roller leaving the channel — happen mid-cycle rather than at rest, and they happen on a door people had decided was fine. 5 ### The door came off its track in the impact High risk — call a technician Sometimes the door leaves the track during the event itself. It ends up sitting at an angle, jammed partway, or hanging with one corner clear of the opening. What's holding it at that point is a combination of friction, a jammed roller, and whatever the low corner is leaning on — none of which is a support system. The cables are still under spring tension while all of that is true, and the counterbalance is now pulling against a door that isn't where it's supposed to be. The correct handling is covered in full on our off-track page, and the short version is that the door does not move until the counterbalance is under control. That includes not pulling the emergency release, because releasing the trolley removes the opener from a situation where it may be one of the things holding the door. If a vehicle is trapped inside, it stays there. A car is recoverable. A door coming down on someone reaching under it is not. How you can tell: The door is at an angle, one corner out of the track channel, jammed at a height, or resting against something. **Where to stop:** This is a call rather than a schedule. Don't reposition it, don't pull the release, and don't try to lift the low corner back into the channel. A door out of its track is the one genuinely unstable state a residential door reaches, and it doesn't settle. 6 ### The vehicle is still touching the door High risk — call a technician Handle this before you make any other decision, because moving the car changes the situation. Two cases. In the first, the vehicle is touching the door and nothing more, and the door is still hanging on its own cables and rollers. Backing away slowly and straight, with somebody watching the door, is generally the right move. In the second, the door has lost support and is leaning on the vehicle — a section resting on the trunk, the bottom edge sitting on a bumper. Here the car is holding load, and removing it lets that load go somewhere. If the bottom edge drops even a few inches when the car pulls away, the door has told you it wasn't holding itself. The way to tell them apart is to look at how the door is sitting rather than at the contact point. A door hanging square with taut cables is resting against the car. A door that's tipped, or that has a slack cable, is resting on it. How you can tell: Physical contact between the two, with the state of the cables and the squareness of the door deciding which case you're in. **Where to stop:** If the door is tipped, if a cable is slack, or if you can't tell — leave the car where it is and call. There's no version of this where getting the vehicle out ten minutes sooner is worth the other outcome, and we deal with exactly this situation regularly. Freeing the vehicle is part of the [garage door panel replacement](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-repair-service-installation/garage-door-panel-replacement/) rather than something to manage beforehand. 7 ### Documenting it properly before anything is touched Basic check The one part of this page that is genuinely yours to do, and it's worth doing carefully. Whatever route the repair takes — insurance, out of pocket, a landlord, a claim against another driver — the record is made in the first ten minutes and can't be recreated afterward. Photographs are more useful than descriptions and far more useful than memory. Shoot wide before you shoot close, so there's context for every detail. Include the vehicle in at least one frame while it's still where it ended up. On insurance generally: policies differ enormously in how they treat a vehicle hitting a structure, and which part of a policy responds depends on wording we have no visibility into. We won't advise you on a claim and we're not qualified to — that conversation belongs with your insurer or agent. What we can do is give you a clear written assessment of what's damaged and what the repair involves, which is usually what gets asked for. How you can tell: Applies to every version on this page, and it's the step to take while the door is still exactly as the impact left it. The fix 1. Take wide shots of the whole door from outside and from inside the garage before anything moves. 2. Photograph the vehicle where it stopped, including its position relative to the door. 3. Take close shots of the damaged sections from straight on and at a low angle, so both the shape and the depth read. 4. Photograph both vertical tracks, both bottom corners, both cables and the opener arm — including the undamaged side, which is the reference for what normal looks like. 5. Note the date and, if you know it, roughly how fast the vehicle was moving. Write it down while it's fresh. 6. Find the door's manufacturer label on the inside face and photograph that too. It's what makes a section actually orderable. 7. Contact your insurer or agent about your own policy before assuming anything about coverage — that's their call to make, not ours and not the internet's. 8. Get a written assessment of the damage before repairs begin, so what's being repaired is documented rather than described. You’ll know it’s right when: You have wide and close photographs of the door, both tracks, both bottom corners, the vehicle and the manufacturer's label. **Where to stop:** The only risk in this step is going somewhere you shouldn't for a photograph. Don't reach under a door that's partly open, don't climb to get a shot of the shaft or springs, and don't move anything to get a clearer angle. ## What you’ll need if you’re doing this yourself - **A phone camera** — the record of what happened is made now or not at all, and photographs settle questions that descriptions don't - **A bright flashlight** — the parts that decide the repair — tracks, cables, bottom brackets — are all in the darkest part of the garage - **A second person** — for watching the door while a vehicle is backed away from it, and for keeping people out of the opening ## Things not to do — and why × Don't operate the door to see how bad it is The test cycle is the most damaging thing that happens after most impacts. It drags a bound roller the full length of a bent track and applies the door's whole weight through whichever part has moved. × Don't back the car away from a door that's leaning on it If the door has lost support and is resting on the vehicle, the car is carrying load. Removing it lets that load go somewhere, and the somewhere is downward. × Don't pull the emergency release to move the door by hand The release disconnects the door from the opener, and after an impact the opener may be one of the things currently holding the door in position. Releasing it on a door with a damaged cable or bracket removes the last thing in the way. × Don't straighten a bent track Track alignment is what keeps the door in the opening, and a track that has been bent and bent back has a weak point where it will fold again. Deformed track sections get replaced, not reshaped. × Don't put a wrench near a bottom bracket Those two brackets anchor the lift cables and carry the entire load the springs are holding. Impacts land close to them, which makes this the exact situation where people are tempted, and it's the one component where a mistake is immediate rather than gradual. × Don't reach under a partly open door to retrieve something Not the car, not a bike, not a phone. A door that has been struck may be held by a jammed roller or by friction, and neither of those gives any warning before letting go. × Don't clear the scene before photographing it Moving the vehicle, sweeping up, or straightening anything removes the record. Ten minutes of photographs at the start saves a great deal of argument later, whoever ends up paying. × Don't let anyone quote you from a photo of the dent alone The dent is the least informative part of the damage. An assessment that doesn't include both tracks, both cables, both bottom brackets and the door's squareness isn't an assessment of what happened. ## What's different about this here Vehicle impacts aren't a climate problem, but two local realities change how they play out on Valley doors. The first is that garages here are the household's main entrance. In Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek, most people come and go through the garage every day and rarely use the front door, so the number of vehicle movements past a garage door is high and the door is nearly always in motion when a car is nearby. The second is the jamb. Track brackets are lagged into wood that has spent years in a garage running well above outdoor temperature, in extremely low humidity. Dry timber gives up a lag screw more readily than the same timber would somewhere temperate, and pulled jamb fixings are one of the most common things we find after an impact people described as minor. - **Dry jambs release lag screws** — the fixing holding the track to the wall is often the thing that moved, and it's invisible until a roller starts binding against a track that's a quarter inch out of place. - **Doors here are almost always moving** — with the garage serving as the front door, contact with a door in motion is more common than contact with a closed one, and that's the more expensive version. - **Heat-tired springs make a bad day worse** — springs here rarely reach the life a mild climate would give them — and DASMA's cycle-life guidance is narrower than it's usually quoted, pointing at doors left standing open rather than at ambient heat, and an impact on a door whose counterbalance is already drifting has less margin to absorb. - **The opening can't just be left** — an attached garage full of tools and equipment in a valley where an open garage is the most common way a house gets entered is why we treat this as a same-day problem rather than a scheduling one. - **Summer makes the drive quicker than the parts** — sections are built to order, so securing the opening while a panel is on its way is part of the conversation from the first visit. ## Not doing this again Nobody plans to hit their garage door, but the circumstances that produce it are consistent enough to design around. - **Wait for the door to stop moving** before pulling in or backing out. Contact with a moving door does more damage than contact with a closed one, and it's the version that's entirely under your control. - **Give yourself a physical parking reference** — a tennis ball on a string, a mark on the floor, or a wheel stop takes the depth judgment out of it entirely. - **Check the mirror and the camera** — reversing cameras show the driveway, and plenty of them don't show a door that's still coming down above the frame. - **Keep the opening clear and well lit** so the door's position is obvious at night, which is when most of these happen. - **Talk about it with new drivers in the household** — garage depth and door timing are learned, and the learning usually happens the expensive way. - **Have any contact looked at, even the light ones** — the jamb fixings and track alignment are what get missed, and they're cheap to correct before a roller has been running hard against them for a month. ## What the first cycle after an impact sets in motion This is the sequence we're asking you to interrupt by not running the door. Each step causes the next. A vehicle strikes the door and the load travels into the track *(you are here)* → [The vertical track bows or its jamb fixing pulls loose](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/garage-door-track-bent/) → [A roller runs hard against the displaced track and starts binding](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/garage-door-rubbing-track/) → [The bound side goes slack and the cable leaves its drum](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/garage-door-cable-came-off/) → [With one corner unsupported, a roller climbs out and the door comes off track](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/garage-door-off-track/) Every step past the first is caused by operating the door, which is why the whole page is built around the ten minutes before anyone presses the button. ## What we assess after a vehicle impact The panel damage is the last thing we look at, not the first. The order below is the order the load traveled. What we do on a visit for this - Secure the door and confirm the counterbalance state before anything is moved or operated - Inspect both lift cables end to end and both drums for jumped grooves and uneven spooling - Examine both bottom brackets and their fixings, and the section material around them - Check both vertical tracks for bow, kink and displacement, and compare against the undamaged side - Check every jamb and flag bracket fixing for lag screws pulled from the jamb - Inspect all rollers and stems for flats, seized bearings and bent stems - Check hinges and end stiles across the whole door for racking damage from the impact - Inspect the opener arm, its bracket and the top section where contact was above bumper height - Identify the damaged sections by series, panel design and color and confirm availability - Re-establish plumb and level on both tracks, then test balance and re-run the safety reversal test the way UL 325 requires You'll get a written quote before any work starts. The service that fixes this When you want it handled rather than diagnosed, this is the page for it: [garage door panel replacement](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-repair-service-installation/garage-door-panel-replacement/). Depending on what you find, [24-7 emergency garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-repair-service-installation/24-7-emergency-garage-door-repair/) may be the closer fit. ## What decides the size of this repair Two impacts that look identical in a photograph can produce very different jobs, and none of the reasons are about the dent. - **Whether the load stayed in the section** Damage confined to the door face is a panel job. Damage that moved a track, a bracket or a cable brings the running gear in with it. - **Whether the jamb fixings held** Lag screws pulled from a dry jamb mean re-anchoring into sound material, and sometimes repairing the jamb itself before the track can be trusted. - **Which sections took the hit** The bottom section carries the cable anchors, so the counterbalance has to be handled before it comes out. That's a different job from swapping a middle section. - **Whether the panel design is still made** A current design is a parts order. A discontinued one turns the same damage into a whole-door conversation, and that's decided by the door's age rather than the impact. - **How many times it was operated afterward** Every cycle on a bound roller or a misaligned track adds wear that wasn't part of the original damage, and it's the most avoidable line on any of these jobs. - **Whether the opener was involved** Contact above bumper height often means a bent arm or a bracket pulled from the top section, and that brings reinforcement work with it. Contact low on the door usually keeps the job closer to a straight [garage door panel replacement](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-repair-service-installation/garage-door-panel-replacement/). - **How the opening gets secured while parts are ordered** Sections are built to order, so what happens between the assessment and the fit is part of the plan rather than an afterthought. You'll get a written quote before any work starts. If the door is due anyway, our full tune-up is $39.99 — same price in every city we serve. ## Still stuck? We’ll come take a look. Same-day service is our standard across Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, Phoenix, and the rest of the Valley. [Call (602) 935-9766](tel:+16029359766) [Book an appointment](https://farnsworthgarage.com/book-appointment-now/) Due for a check-up while we’re out? Our full tune-up is **$39.99** — same price in every city we serve. ## Related problems we see with this one [Dented Garage Door Panel Read the fix →](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/garage-door-panel-dented/) [Bent Garage Door Track: Can It Be Fixed? Read the fix →](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/garage-door-track-bent/) [Garage Door Came Off Its Track Read the fix →](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/garage-door-off-track/) [One Panel or the Whole Door? Read the fix →](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/garage-door-panel-replacement/) ## Questions we get asked about this ### What should I do if I hit my garage door with my car? Stop and don't operate the door — not even once to see how bad it is. Make sure nobody is under it, unplug the opener so it can't be run by remote or app, and leave the vehicle where it is if it's still in contact with the door. Then photograph everything, look at both tracks, both cables and both bottom corners, and get it assessed before it moves again. ### Can I still use my garage door after hitting it? Not until someone has looked at the tracks, the cables and the bottom brackets. A door can look presentable and still have a bowed track, a pulled jamb fixing or a twisted cable anchor, and the first cycle after an impact reliably causes more additional damage than the impact did. If the cables are taut, both tracks are straight and the door hangs square, it's usually schedulable rather than urgent — but that's a conclusion to reach after looking, not before. ### Should I move my car away from the garage door? Look at how the door is hanging first. If it's square with taut cables, it's resting against the car and backing away slowly and straight — with someone watching the door — is generally fine. If the door is tipped, a cable is slack, or a section is sitting on the vehicle, the car may be carrying load the door has lost, and moving it lets that load go somewhere. In that case leave it and call. ### My garage door still works after I hit it. Do I need to get it checked? Yes, and this is the version that costs people most. A light impact often moves a track fixing a fraction of an inch, which nothing announces. A roller then runs hard against the track for weeks, wears a flat, and the door starts shuddering — at which point the repair covers a roller, a track and often a section's end stile instead of just re-anchoring a bracket. ### How much does it cost to fix a garage door hit by a car? It's driven by how far the load traveled rather than by how the dent looks. Damage confined to the door face is a panel conversation. Damage that bowed a track, pulled jamb fixings, moved a bottom bracket or affected a cable brings the running gear in too. Whether the panel design is still in production is often the single biggest factor, and that has nothing to do with the impact at all. ### Does insurance cover a car hitting a garage door? That depends entirely on your policies and how the event is characterized, and it's a conversation for your insurer or agent rather than for us — we're not in a position to tell you what will or won't be covered. What we can do is provide a clear written assessment of the damage and the repair, which is generally what gets asked for. Photograph everything before anything is moved. The assessment describes the [garage door panel replacement](https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-repair-service-installation/garage-door-panel-replacement/) in the same terms we'd quote it to you. ### Can a garage door be repaired after a car hits it, or does it need replacing? Often repaired. If one section took the damage and the design is still available, that section can be replaced along with whatever track or hardware moved. It shifts toward a full replacement when several sections are involved, when the panel design has been discontinued, or when the door was already near the end of its life before the impact. ### What gets damaged when a car hits a garage door? More than the panel. The load goes out through the section to the end stiles, into the roller stems, into the vertical track, and into the brackets holding that track to the jamb. It also goes down into the bottom brackets where the lift cables anchor. Bowed track, lag screws pulled from a dry jamb, a flatted roller and a twisted bottom bracket are all common and none of them show from the driveway. ### Is a dented garage door dangerous? The dent by itself usually isn't. What can be is what moved behind it — a bottom bracket that's no longer flat, a cable that has jumped a groove on its drum, or a track that's out of alignment. Those change what's holding the door's weight, and they fail suddenly rather than gradually, which is why the advice here is to look before running it rather than after. ### The garage door came off its track when I hit it. What now? Nobody operates it and nobody repositions it. A door out of its track is held by friction and a jammed roller, with the cables still under full spring tension. Get everyone out from under the opening, unplug the opener, and leave a trapped car where it is — it's recoverable and the alternative isn't. That situation has its own page and it's a call rather than a schedule. ### How long will it take to fix? The hardware work is normally a single visit. What sets the timeline is any section that needs ordering, because door sections are built to order rather than stocked. That's why the first visit focuses on identifying the door precisely, and why securing the opening in the meantime is part of the conversation rather than an afterthought. ### Should I get the door looked at before I call my insurance? Having a clear written assessment of what's damaged tends to make every version of that conversation easier, whoever ends up paying. Photograph the scene before anything moves, get the damage assessed properly, and take the coverage questions to your insurer — they're the only ones who can answer them for your policy. ### Where this information comes from - UL 325 — safety standard for residential garage door operators — the reversal behavior that gets re-tested after any repair that changes the door's weight or travel - Manufacturer bottom bracket warning labels — the factory labeling on the cable anchor brackets that sit right where vehicle impacts land - [DASMA Technical Data Sheet #174 — Building Occupant: Checking A Residential Sectional Garage Door For Damage](https://www.dasma.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/TDS174.pdf) — DASMA's homeowner post-impact inspection — visual before operational, stop the moment any deformation or binding shows, and don't touch springs, cables or anything they're fastened to - [DASMA Technical Data Sheet #175 — Trained Door Systems Technician: Checking a Garage Door for Damage](https://www.dasma.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/TDS175.pdf) — the technician-side counterpart: repair-versus-replace is a judgment call, the owner should be shown any and all viable options, and a written assessment goes to the insurer when damage warrants replacement Serving the Valley ## Where we come out We’re a family-run shop based in **Mesa**, and we cover the whole Phoenix metro. Same-day service is our standard — pick your city, or just call [(602) 935-9766](tel:+16029359766) and we’ll find the soonest slot that works. [Phoenix Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/phoenix-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Mesa Our home base](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/mesa-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Gilbert Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/gilbert-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Chandler Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/chandler-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Queen Creek Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/queen-creek-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Scottsdale Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/scottsdale-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Tempe Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/tempe-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [San Tan Valley Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/san-tan-valley-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Apache Junction Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/apache-junction-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Gold Canyon Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/gold-canyon-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Fountain Hills Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/fountain-hills-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Maricopa Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/maricopa-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) [Guadalupe Garage door repair](https://farnsworthgarage.com/service-areas-garage-door-repair/guadalupe-arizona-garage-door-repair-and-service/) Not sure if you’re in range? Give us a call — if we can’t get to you, we’ll point you to someone who can. Mesa-based · Serving the whole Phoenix Valley ## Want us to just take care of it? If you’ve worked through this and you’d rather have someone who does this every day handle it — that’s us. Tell us what your garage door is doing and we’ll come diagnose it properly. [☎ (602) 935-9766 Call or text — we pick up](tel:+16029359766) [Book online Pick your own time slot](https://farnsworthgarage.com/book-appointment-now/) - **Same-day service** is our standard - **Family-owned** right here in Mesa - **Straight answers** — we’ll tell you if it’s not worth fixing - **Written quote** before any work starts Due for a check-up anyway? Our full tune-up is **$39.99** — same price in every city we serve, and we’ll go through the whole system while we’re there. Mesa · Gilbert · Chandler · Queen Creek · Scottsdale · Tempe · Phoenix · San Tan Valley · Apache Junction · Gold Canyon · Fountain Hills · Maricopa · Guadalupe --- Source: https://farnsworthgarage.com/garage-door-troubleshooting/car-hit-garage-door/ · HTML version with images, galleries and booking form. Farnsworth Garage Door Service, Mesa, AZ · (602) 935-9766