Garage Door Opener Not Closing + Lights Blinking? Solved!

So your garage door won’t close and the lights keep blinking. Find out how to solve this issue and get the door shut, thanks to the three steps in this article.

If your garage door opener won’t close and the lights blink, do the following:

• Unblock the sensors
• Realign the sensors until the green light comes on
• Check the LED troubleshooting light for an error code

You’ve just seen 3 steps that you can use to get your garage door closing properly again. Are you ready to test them out on your door? Then take a look at each step in more detail below.

Fixing a Garage Door Opener That Blinks and Won’t Close

You could press the ‘close’ button on the garage door opener until you are blue in the face. But no matter what, you cannot get the door to shut. You’ve tried inching closer to the motor and pointing the remote directly at it, but there’s still no response. You’ve tried leaving it and then coming back later, but there’s never any movement. What can you do?

This is a super frustrating problem, but there’s no need to let it get under your skin. Coming up are the three all-important steps to fix a garage door. Read on and get yours repaired today.

Step #1 – Unblock the Sensors

We’re going to start off with one of the simplest solutions— to unblock the sensors. If the sensors on your garage door are blocked, the doors will not close. Safety sensors use an invisible beam of infrared light, so when something is obstructing the beam, the doors will not close.

But a blocked sensor doesn’t always mean there’s an object in the way. The sensors could also stop the doors from closing if they are very dusty and dirty.

To solve the problem and unblock your sensors, do the following:

1. Remove any obstructions in front of the sensors.
2. Wipe the sensors over with a rag. Clean away any dust or dirt from them.
3. Press the garage door opener to test it. If it still doesn’t close, move on to the next section.

Step #2 – Realign the Sensors

So you’ve checked that the sensors are unblocked but still can’t get your garage door to close. This could indicate that you need to realign the sensors.

But how can you tell if your sensors need realigning? The following should serve as an indication.

• Both sensors have a light but only one of them is on
• You can only see the yellow light on the sending sensor
• The green light on the receiving sensor is off

If any of the points mentioned above are true, you can conclude that your sensor is misaligned. Here’s how you can examine the alignment of the sensors and get them back into the right place.

1. Check if one of the sensors has been knocked out of place. If it has, move it back.
2. Ensure the green light on the receiving sensor has turned back on.
3. Press the garage door opener to test it. If it still doesn’t close, move on to the next section.

Step #3 – Consult the Error Codes

You’ve removed obstructions from the sensors and checked their alignment, but the garage door still won’t close. What’s more, the garage door opener lights keep blinking. What should you do?

To fix this issue, you will need to check the LED troubleshooting light for an error code. But where can you find the error codes for your sensor? To find yours, you can check your user manual or get in touch with your provider. Your provider will be able to decode the blinking lights for you. Or to make things easier, why not just take a look at the following general guide?

NOTE: The following information works for older and most motor units on a common chain drive garage door opener. For other garage door openers, keep reading.

So that’s one kind of garage door opener. However, some garage doors operate with a slightly different blinking LED light system. If you have a belt drive garage door, it probably operates with blinking arrows. These arrows, when lit up, also spell out error codes that you can use to work out the issue with the garage door.

To find out what the error codes are, you can consult your user manual or get in touch with your provider. But for the fastest help, take a look at the information below.

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Find Your Product Manual Online

Here is how you can troubleshoot the blinking arrows.

NOTE:* This information works for some of the newer motor units on a common chain drive door opener. It is also suitable for belt drive garage door openers.

So we have gone through some of the most basic ways for you to fix problems with your motor unit. And I must admit that moving sensors around is a simple job. But fixing a loose wiring connection might seem a little more complicated than you’d hoped. That’s why I’ll now go into a little more detail about fixing a loose wiring connection.

Here’s how to fix a loose connection:

1. Reconnect any loose wires.
2. Make sure that the sensor wires are connected properly to the motor unit. This means that the white wires should be twisted together and inserted into the white terminal on the motor. The white wire with the gray stripes goes into the gray terminal. If upon examining these wires you find that they are in the wrong place, you will need to remove them and swap them over.
3. After checking the connections and repairing them if necessary, check the door. It should now close. If it doesn’t, this could indicate that there is a problem with the part of the wiring that you cannot see. To repair this, you will need to call a technician.

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Find A Repair Professional You Can Trust

Conclusion

If your remote is refusing to close your garage door, you’re no doubt feeling a little concerned. Leaving the door open all night is definitely not an option and forcing it shut isn’t either. So, how can you get this problem fixed ASAP? Thankfully, this article has mentioned 3 methods you can use to get the garage door closing again.

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Have a great day!

-Craig