Those steel cables on each side of your door are what actually transfer the springs' power. When one frays or snaps, the door goes crooked fast — and the fix involves spring tension, so it's not a DIY job.
Cables live under the same tension as the springs and run over drums thousands of times a year. Strands wear where the cable meets the drum and where it anchors at the bottom bracket. Grit is the accelerant here: Albuquerque's wind seasons drive fine sand into the cable wrap, and it works like sandpaper inside the strands. A fraying cable is a countdown, not a cosmetic issue — when it lets go, the door drops on that side and often jumps the track.
Cables can't be safely replaced without properly releasing and re-applying spring tension — the same reason spring work isn't DIY. The bottom brackets the cables anchor to are under constant load and are one of the most common garage-door injury points for homeowners with a socket set and a YouTube video. Our techs do this daily with winding bars and the door secured.
We replace both cables (they age together, like springs), inspect the drums for grooving, check the bottom brackets and rollers, verify the springs still balance the door, and cycle-test before we leave. Most cable jobs finish within the hour.
We don't recommend it. Cable replacement requires safely releasing spring tension, and the bottom brackets involved are under constant load. It's the same risk category as spring work — this is one of the jobs that's cheap to hire out and expensive to get wrong.
Both cables have identical wear — same cycles, same grit, same age. The second one is usually weeks behind the first. Replacing the pair on one visit costs little more than one and prevents a repeat call.
Could be either, and sometimes a cable failure follows a spring failure. A visible loose or frayed cable points to the cable; a loud bang beforehand points to a spring. Either way, stop using the door — we diagnose the root cause on-site.
Typically $150–$350 for the pair, installed, in the Albuquerque area — more if drums or brackets also need replacement. Firm quote before work begins.
Related: Spring Repair · Off-Track Repair · Repair Cost Guide
Same-day cable replacement with a full hardware inspection, metro-wide.
