Merrillville, IN · Same-day service
The Right Lubricant, the Right Points, and the Track
The most common thing we find on a noisy door is not a dry door. It is a door somebody has sprayed with penetrating oil.
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Penetrating spray is a solvent. It is excellent at freeing a seized bolt, and it does that by dissolving grease, which means it strips the packed lubricant out of a roller bearing and leaves the metal clean, dry and about to fail. The door goes quiet for a day or two, then comes back worse than it started.
Product choice, and why temperature decides it
An unheated attached garage here sits close to outside temperature all winter. Heavy grease that behaves nicely in October goes stiff once the garage is down in the teens, dragging on every moving part and holding the grit that arrives on tires.
White lithium in a light film handles the metal-to-metal pivots. Silicone goes where lithium would collect dirt or sit against rubber. Both stay workable through the cold far better than general-purpose grease, and both go on sparingly. The goal is a film, not a coating, because anything thicker is a dust magnet.
The points that take it, and the two that never do
Hinge pivots, roller stems where they sit in the hinge, the bearings at each end of the torsion shaft plus the center bearing, the exposed torsion coils in a light mist, pulleys and sheaves on an extension system, the lock bar and its guides, and the rail of a chain-drive opener along the trolley path.
Never the track. The rollers are supposed to roll along it, and a greasy track makes them slide instead, then collects grit until the whole thing grinds. And never a belt-drive rail. The belt is designed to run dry, and oil on it makes it slip and shortens its life.
Silicone on the seals before the first freeze
The winter call that comes in most often in this town is a door that will not close down properly, or will not release from the floor, because the bottom seal has frozen to a cold slab overnight. Meltwater runs off the car, sits under the astragal and sets solid.
A light silicone treatment on the bottom seal and the jamb seals in late fall stops the rubber bonding to concrete and stops it going brittle in the first place. It takes two minutes and it prevents a torn seal, a strained opener, and occasionally a bottom section pulled loose from the door by somebody who forced it.
Other work we do in Merrillville
- Torsion Springs
- Extension Springs
- Roller Repair
- Panel Replacement
- Smart Openers
- Commercial
- Custom Doors
- Maintenance
- Safety Inspection
- Spring Replacement
- Opener Repair
- Installation
- Emergency Service
- Cable Repair
- Track Repair
Lubrication in nearby towns
More on garage door lubrication, or everything we cover in Merrillville.
Questions
Merrillville questions about this job
I lubricated it a month ago and it is squeaking again. Why?
Because the noise was never a lubrication problem. A bearing with flattened balls, a hinge with an elongated pivot hole or a roller with a split wheel all go quiet briefly with oil in them and then come back. Silence that keeps running out is a sign the part needs changing.
Should the track be cleaned then, if it should not be lubricated?
Yes. Wipe it out with a dry rag, or a rag with a little solvent on it, then leave it dry. A clean dry track and a sound roller is the quiet combination. Anything slippery in there works against you.
What about the chain on the opener?
A chain drive wants a light film along the rail where the trolley runs, and a chain tensioned correctly rather than drooping. If the chain is slapping the rail, tension is the fix and no amount of lubricant will touch it. Screw-drive rails take a specific grease rather than oil, and belt drives take nothing at all.
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