Not driving my S8 :(
 

Went out on Wednesday night, so much faffing with swapping car seats into the A6 so my wife could drop me at the train station after she finished work meant the S8 went in to the garage on Tuesday evening and hasn't been out since. Went to put the car seat back in on Thursday morning and one of the garage door counterbalance wires has snapped, leaving the garage door hanging precariously with a bit of a list to one side.....

Since the car isn't insured overnight if it's not garaged I gingerly closed the door again, making sure the broken wire didn't retract into the mechanism and screw it up any more than it is.

Spoken to a local company who reckon replacement cables are still available but looking at £150 bill to replace both side. Apparently if they both snap together it's game over for the door as the spring units are NLA. Anyone had a simple up and over garage door fitted that can recall what a new one would cost?

The bloke who has quoted to fix can't get to me till Wednesday to advise if the door is worth repairing but want to be prepared if he does say it's toast.

Am exploring options to give me greater width on the garage as I've got 3" timber frame on both sides of the existing door that I'd be happy to lose! Unfortunately I'm struggling to find anything that doesn't involve mounting the door further into the garage on the rear face of the bricks, which will shorten the garage by about 6", which isn't exactly '8 friendly!!

Oh well, at least I've saved 50 quid on fuel this week I suppose......

Try Arridge Garage Doors +++

I had a cable pop off on my up and over door. Was 50 quid to sort it out, guessing a replacement cable wouldn't be much more expensive or time consuming.

These guys have been doing garage doors for ages Adrian and can source most spare parts needed -

http://www.garagedoorsupplies.co.uk/res-parts.php

When I replaced both my garage door wires, and the bobbins they wrap around, I did it myself, and including the drift to knock out the roll pins, it came to less than £25

Not too hard a job if you have an assistant. I actually managed to do the job without any assistance.

Cheers guys

I've managed to bodge it for now with a length of steel wire and a couple of metal cable clamps to the old cables. Had the door resting on the top of a ladder while I stood on another lol

Now have confidence I can get the car out of the garage without risk of it dropping so will then try to ID the garage door maker and see how much new cables should cost. The bobbins appear to be bolted through the door with just a nut on the inside, but the door frame is pretty bent so they don't sit straight.

Will try that place in Swindon to see if they have the spares and any instructions for replacing the cables - can't see it being THAT hard!