Garage Door Spring Broke and Car Is Stuck Inside: What To Do Right Now

How Do You Get a Car Out When the Garage Door Spring Breaks?

You can open the door manually, but do it carefully and with help. Here are the steps in order:

Before you touch anything:

• Disconnect the automatic opener. Unplug it from the wall outlet. Do not try to run the opener with a broken spring — it can strip the drive gears or burn out the motor trying to lift a door it can't handle.
• Get a second person. A standard double garage door weighs 150 to 200 pounds. With a broken spring, none of that weight is counterbalanced. You will be lifting the full weight by hand.

To manually release the door:

1. Locate the red emergency release cord hanging from the opener trolley track. Pull it straight down (not toward the door). This disconnects the door from the opener carriage.
2. With your helper, grip the door at the bottom corners and lift together in a single smooth motion. Don't jerk it. Lift until the door is fully open.
3. Keep someone holding the door up — it will not stay open on its own with a broken spring. Most doors will fall if you let go.
4. Back your car out, then slowly lower the door back down by hand.

If the door feels too heavy to lift even with two people, stop. Some heavier doors, especially older wood doors common in Milwaukee-area homes, simply aren't safe to lift by hand without the spring doing its share. Call for help instead of risking a back injury or a door that drops unexpectedly.

Is It Safe to Operate a Garage Door With a Broken Spring?

No. Once the spring is broken, the door should not be used normally until it's repaired. This means:

• Do not use the automatic opener, even if it sounds like it's running. The opener is designed to work with the spring's counterbalance. Running it without that counterbalance can damage the opener or cause the door to come down suddenly.
• Do not prop the door open and leave it unattended. A door held up only by hand pressure or a temporary prop can fall without warning.
• Keep children and pets away from the garage until the repair is done.

For more on safe garage door practices, see our garage door safety guide.

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Why Did the Spring Break? It Wasn't Even Used That Much

This is one of the most common things homeowners say after a spring breaks, and it makes sense — the failure often comes out of nowhere. But here's the thing: garage door torsion springs are under constant tension, even when the door is sitting closed and untouched. The spring doesn't "rest" between uses. It holds thousands of foot-pounds of stored force every hour of every day, including all winter while temperatures in Milwaukee and Madison drop into single digits and the metal contracts and expands with each temperature swing.

Most torsion springs are rated for 10,000 to 15,000 cycles (one cycle equals one open and one close). For a typical household using the door four times a day, that's roughly 7 to 10 years. But a spring that's been under tension for years in a cold Wisconsin garage can fatigue faster, and there's no visible warning before it snaps. The loud bang you heard was years of built-up tension releasing all at once.

Our technicians at Wisconsin Garage Door Pro diagnose broken springs daily — it's the single most common emergency call we receive across southeastern Wisconsin. Cold snaps in January and February are peak failure season because rapid temperature drops stress already-fatigued metal.

Should Both Springs Be Replaced at the Same Time?

Yes, and most professionals will recommend this. If your door has two torsion springs (most double doors do), and one breaks, the other is typically the same age and has accumulated the same wear. Replacing only the broken spring now means there's a good chance the second spring fails within months. Replacing both at once saves a second service call and keeps the door balanced.

Standard torsion spring replacement in the Milwaukee and Madison areas typically runs $350 to $900 for both springs, depending on door weight, spring size, and wire gauge. That range covers parts and labor. Single-spring replacements on lighter doors can be lower. We'll give you an exact number before any work starts.

What Happens After You Get the Car Out?

Once your vehicle is out and the door is safely down, the practical answer is simple: leave it closed and don't use it until the spring is replaced. Don't attempt a DIY spring replacement. Torsion springs are under extreme tension even when they appear broken, and winding or unwinding them without the right tools and training has caused serious injuries. This is one of the few garage door repairs where professional service isn't just a convenience, it's genuinely safer.

Garage Door Professional was named to the Garage Door Handbook Top 100 Garage Door Companies of 2026 and serves the entire Milwaukee metro, from Brookfield and Waukesha to Mequon and Racine, as well as the Madison area and surrounding counties. We carry the spring sizes for virtually every door configuration we encounter, which means same-day repair is available for most calls.

Ready for a Same-Day Spring Repair?

When you call Garage Door Professional at (414) 375-5533 (Milwaukee) or (608) 466-6256 (Madison), a real person picks up in under 30 seconds — no hold music, no call centers, no bots. We're available around the clock with no emergency surcharges, and we'll tell you the price before we start.

Contact us here if you'd prefer to reach out online, or call now for Milwaukee-area garage door spring repair and same-day service.

Your car isn't stuck forever. We'll have it sorted out today.

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