A car hitting a garage door usually bends the bottom two sections and throws the track out of alignment. Whether it can be repaired depends on how far the impact force travelled into the hardware and frame — not just how the panels look.
Most Richmond homes have standard 16-by-7 or 16-by-8 doors on torsion-spring systems. A low-speed impact at 5 to 10 km/h often stays in the panels. Anything faster, or a taller vehicle hitting the top section, transfers energy into the struts, hinges, shaft, and track. That is where the repair-versus-replace line gets drawn.
What the impact actually damages
The door is a system. Panels carry the load between the hinges. Struts stiffen the top sections. The track guides the rollers. The shaft, drums, and cables carry the spring tension. A hit on the bottom section compresses the panel, which pushes the hinge points outward. That movement bends the vertical track, twists the horizontal track, and can crack the flag bracket where the two meet.
If the door was closed and locked, the force has nowhere to go. The bottom seal crushes, the bottom roller pops out, and the cable often goes slack on one side. Slack cable means the drum spins loose, the spring unloads unevenly, and the shaft can bend. A bent shaft will not run true in the bearing plates — you feel it as a wobble every cycle.
Top-section hits are different. They bend the top strut, crush the top hinge, and often damage the opener arm bracket. The opener rail takes a shock load it was not designed for. The motor gear strips or the logic board fails days later from the vibration.
How to tell if the panels can stay
Stand inside the garage with the door closed. Run a straightedge — a 4-foot level works — across the face of each damaged section. You are looking for more than 3/16 inch of bow over four feet. That is the threshold where the panel will not seal against the weatherstrip and the rollers will bind in the track.
Check the hinge points. If the hinge leaf is cracked where it bolts to the section, or the bolt holes are elongated, the panel is done. You cannot re-drill structural skin on a sandwich door. The steel skins are 26 or 27 gauge; the insulation core does not hold a fastener.
Look at the struts. A bent strut on the top section can be replaced individually. A bent strut on a middle section means the panel above and below took the same force. Replace the strut and the adjacent hinges, then test the door balance. If it still drifts, the panel itself has yielded.
Single-panel replacement is possible on current-model doors from Wayne Dalton, Amarr, Clopay, and Richards-Wilco — provided the model is still in production and the colour match is acceptable. Fade on a south-facing Richmond door after five years is visible. If the door is discontinued, you are replacing the whole door.
What the track tells you
Vertical track that is bent more than 1/4 inch over eight feet will not guide rollers cleanly. You can sometimes cold-bend it back with a pipe and a come-along, but the metal work-hardens. It will kink again under spring tension. Horizontal track that is twisted at the flag bracket usually means the bracket itself is cracked. The flag bracket anchors the horizontal track to the jamb. If it moves, the door will not hold level.
Jamb mounting is the hidden failure point. The lag bolts into the wood jamb pull out under impact. In Richmond homes built 1970s through 1990s — Broadmoor, Steveston, Hamilton — the jambs are often original Douglas fir. It holds well unless it has rotted at the base. If the track moves when you push on it, the jamb needs repair before any door work.
Concrete-filled steel jambs in newer Ironwood or Terra Nova builds do not rot, but the anchor bolts can shear. That is a drill-and-epoxy fix, not a door fix.
The spring and cable side
A car hit does not break a torsion spring directly. But it unloads the spring unevenly. One cable goes slack, the other stays tight. The drum on the slack side spins backward. When you cycle the door, the cable crosses on the drum, frays, and snaps on the next cycle.
Always replace both cables after an impact. The cost is negligible compared to a second service call. Inspect the drums for cracks at the keyway. Inspect the shaft for runout — spin it by hand with the springs unloaded. Any wobble means a new shaft.
If the spring is over 7,000 cycles (roughly 5 to 7 years on a two-car family door), replace it while the door is apart. You are already paying the labour. A fresh spring matched to the door weight prevents the “fixed the panels, spring broke three weeks later” callback.
Opener damage that shows up later
The opener arm connects to the top section with a bracket. That bracket is the lever. A hit on the door puts a side load on the opener’s output shaft. The internal nylon drive gear strips first. The motor keeps running, the door does not move. You hear a grinding whine.
Chain-drive openers can take more shock than belt-drive. Jackshaft openers mounted beside the shaft take almost none — the coupler shears. If the opener runs but the door moves unevenly, disconnect the arm and run the opener solo. If it runs smooth, the door is the problem. If it chatters, the opener is damaged.
Photo-eyes get knocked out of alignment every time. They are at 6 inches off the floor — bumper height. The brackets bend. The lenses crack. Realign them after the door is mechanically sound, not before.
What to check before calling for garage door repair
- Disconnect the opener. Pull the red release handle. If the door will not move by hand, do not force it. The track is bound or a roller is jammed.
- Lift the door halfway. Let go. A balanced door stays put. If it crashes down or flies up, the spring is wrong for the current door weight — possibly because a panel was replaced with a heavier or lighter one, or the spring took a shock.
- Look at the cables. Both sides should be taut with the door closed. Slack on one side means drum or cable issue.
- Check the bottom seal. If daylight shows under the center, the bottom section is bowed. That section carries the most load. It is usually the first to go.
- Photo the VIN plate. Inside the door, near the bottom corner. Model number, series, colour code. Text it to the technician. It saves a trip.
Do not remove the bottom brackets. The cable is under full spring tension there. People lose fingers doing this. Do not loosen the set screws on the torsion spring cones. That is a two-technician job with winding bars.
What a technician checks during a garage door inspection
We start with the door down, opener disconnected. We unload the springs completely — winding bars, vice grips on the shaft, cables off the drums. Then we can move panels, straighten track, replace hinges and struts without fighting 200 pounds of spring force.
Panel replacement: unbolt hinges, slide panel out, slide new one in, re-bolt. Torque the hinge bolts to spec — 80 inch-pounds on 1/4-20, 140 on 5/16-18. Over-torquing crushes the skin.
Track work: vertical track comes off the jamb, goes in the truck for the press, or gets replaced. Horizontal track comes down, flag bracket inspected, jamb anchors checked. Rehang, level, plumb, square the door to the opening.
Re-tension the springs. Cycle the door ten times by hand. Check balance at three points. Reconnect opener, set limits, test force, test photo-eyes, test auto-reverse with a 2×4.
Two technicians, two to three hours for a two-panel job with track straightening. Full door replacement is four to five hours including haul-away.
What affects the cost to repair a hit garage door
- Panel count and availability. Current-model panels: $350 to $600 each plus freight. Discontinued means full door: $1,800 to $3,500 installed for a standard insulated steel 16-by-7.
- Track replacement. Vertical track set: $180 to $250. Horizontal track with flag bracket: $220 to $300.
- Spring and cable kit. $180 to $280 for a matched pair on a standard door. High-cycle springs add $80 to $120.
- Labour. Two technicians, half to full day.
- Opener repair or replacement. Gear kit: $45. New belt-drive opener installed: $450 to $650.
Insurance usually covers the lot minus deductible. We write the estimate for the adjuster with line items: panels, track, hardware, springs, cables, opener, labour, disposal. Photos of the impact point, the track, the jamb, the opener arm. The adjuster needs to see the hidden damage, not just the dent.
Richmond specifics
Salt air off the Fraser reaches Broadmoor and Steveston first. Hardware there corrodes faster. A five-year-old hinge in Steveston looks like a ten-year-old hinge in Hamilton. We spec stainless rollers and powder-coated hinges on any repair within five blocks of the dyke.
Older homes in Brighouse and City Centre often have 7-foot-high openings with 6-foot-6 doors — custom height. Panel replacement means custom order. Lead time is two to three weeks. We secure the opening with temporary track and a solid panel so the garage is usable while you wait.
Newer builds in Terra Nova and West Cambie use 8-foot-high doors on 12-inch radius track. Standard 15-inch radius parts do not fit. We stock the 12-inch radius vertical track and flags for these jobs.
When replacement is the only honest answer
- Three or more sections damaged.
- Track bent at the flag bracket with cracked jamb.
- Door model discontinued and colour match matters.
- Door over 20 years old — springs, cables, rollers, hinges, track all at end of life. Fixing the hit panels leaves the rest to fail piecemeal.
- Structural damage to the header or jambs that requires framing before the door can be hung.
We will tell you straight. If the door is a 1998 Clopay with rusted bottom fixtures and a hit on the second section, we will price the repair and the replacement. The replacement is often less per year of remaining life.
Preventing the next one
Parking aids help. A laser park assistant mounted on the ceiling projects a line on the hood. A rubber curb stop bolted to the floor gives a physical cue. Both cost under $50.
If the driveway grade slopes toward the garage, water and ice make the approach slick. A trench drain at the lip keeps the concrete dry. That is a concrete job, not a door job, but it saves doors.
Keep the opener force settings correct. Too much down-force and the door slams the floor, bending the bottom section over time. Too little and it reverses on the 2×4 test. Set it to reverse at 15 pounds of resistance — the weight of a two-by-four flat on the floor.
Next steps after a car hits your garage door
Text a photo of the damage to 778-873-7282. Include the VIN plate if you can reach it. We will tell you if it is a panel job, a track job, or a door job — and what the insurance estimate needs to say.