Repairs and servicing
What is a garage door cone?
A garage door cone is the tapered fitting at each end of a torsion spring that connects the spring to the winding shaft and holds the wound tension in place with set screws. Cones are a common source of noise and slippage on UK doors and are replaced as part of a standard spring replacement, typically £150–£350 inc. VAT for the pair.
What the cone actually does
Each torsion spring has a stationary cone at one end, fixed to a bracket, and a winding cone at the other, which grips the shaft and holds the wound-up tension in place via set screws tightened onto the shaft. The winding cone is what an engineer turns with winding bars to put tension into the spring during fitting.
Why cones fail or slip
Set screws that were not torqued correctly, or that have loosened over years of vibration from the door cycling, can let the cone slip on the shaft. This shows up as a grinding or clicking noise near the spring, or a door that suddenly loses tension and becomes heavy without a full spring snap. A slipping cone is a straightforward retightening if caught early.
Questions people ask
- Is a cone the same as the spring itself?
- No — the cone is a separate fitting at each end of the spring that connects it to the shaft or bracket. The spring is the coiled steel that stores tension; the cones are what transfer that tension to the shaft and hold it in place.
- Can a slipping cone be tightened without replacing the spring?
- Sometimes, if caught early and the spring itself is otherwise sound — an engineer can retension and retighten the set screws. This is a job for a qualified engineer given the stored tension involved, not a DIY fix.
- Are cones sold separately from springs?
- Cones are available as parts, but in practice UK engineers usually replace them together with the spring during a standard spring job rather than as a standalone repair, since they are sold and fitted as a matched assembly.
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