How to Lubricate Your Garage Door and Screw Drive Motor

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It only makes sense to make the most of what we have and try to keep it as well maintained as possible. This holds especially true with a major component of your home. That’s why one of the things we do at the Garage Door Place is to help our clients know and understand how to keep up their doors so that they run into little or no problems in the future.

There are four components to be concerned with when lubricating your garage door and they are as follows:

Motor Rail

The best type of grease to use in these areas is the thicker variety. Using a thinner lubricant like WD40 is counterproductive for motor rails as they end up making the rails even louder. The best way to handle this portion of your garage door is to lubricate the rails while the motor is running. Feeding grease in the track will significantly reduce the chatter in the garage door’s screw driven motor rail.

Door Springs

The thinner variety of lubricant works well on door springs – so we prefer using something like WD40 or a silicone. Just spray a little bit of the grease in the moving parts for optimum results. (This is demonstrated in the video).

Door Hinges

Thin lubricants work well for door hinges too. The thing to be concerned with here is not to overdo the lubrication. Too much can leave a film on hinges, leading to more noise than in the first place. The ideal method with which to apply WD40 or silicone is when the door is up and also when down. When the door is up, there is a small gap between the header and garage door that can be lubricated by getting in between and lightly spraying grease. This is a useful area to work on since the coil is twisted and tends to have a build-up of dirt over time.

Bearings

Keep in mind that the ideal goal is to lubricate any areas where there is metal on metal and moving parts. Going right up behind the garage door lid when the entire door is raised you will have access to the bearings which also need lubrication. You will also notice plastic bushings in some cases that run along the door track on each side.

To avoid racket noises in garage doors, you can lubricate the garage door roller that fits in the shaft with some heavy duty grease to keep the rattle down to a minimum. The rattle occurs when the rollers don’t fit exactly right.  The ideal type of lubricant to use is mechanics grease if you can get it in a clear color. This is typically available in blue or red so try to use it sparingly. It is important to lubricate all rollers since they these are a source of a lot of noise.

A very important thing is not to grease the track along each side of the garage door. A dirty track will only hinder the rollers from properly functioning, could possibly lead to them coming off the track or at least making lots of noise. Lightly spray some brake parts cleaner or WD40 and then wipe off with a clean cloth.

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As always, we are the professionals right here to help you through this or any other of your garage door needs. We invite you to visit our website at www.gdoorgle.com or email us at garagedoorplace@gmail.com.