Diagnostic – the average roller is rated for 10,000 to 20,000 cycles. A cycle is where the door goes up once and down once. Some are made entirely of steel and some are made of nylon or a plastic composite or a combination of both. Rollers made of a plastic compound can wear a lot quicker than a nylon or steel constructed roller.

Plastic ones can break off and have scored flat spots or if the install of the door was not proper they can tend to wear and when they do where they become smaller in diameter and can start to pop out of the garage door track, sometimes causing the door to come off track.

Cost: $20 ¬$40
Difficulty: easy
Time to repair: on hour to two hours
Tools needed: Impact drill (not necessary but recommended), 3⁄8 socket or wrench, 7/16 wrench or socket, (ratchet wrenches work better than standard wrenches.)

There are two different ways to replace your rollers. The first procedure involves just removing the hinges on the left and right hand side of the garage door taking out the old rollers and sliding in a new roller and reattaching it to the door the second process involves removing the vertical track and then pulling out all the old rollers and sliding new ones and then replacing the vertical track. Sometimes you have to revert to the second option or the other option because you cannot perform their easy option. For example sometimes in new construction situations the garage door will go in and be installed before the concrete in the garage is poured and most of the time the vertical track will be stuck into the concrete when it is cured this makes it almost impossible to get that vertical track out. This would force you to go to option two. Another example for the second option by replacing the rollers by removing the old hinges and then replacing the old rollers with new ones and then reattaching the hinge to the garage door.
Sometimes if you have a wooden panel garage door and it has some serious age to it it will tend to get someone a rock and the bolts that hold the hinges on the inside will spin in their holes and will make it impossible to remove the nuts that hold the hinge on this would force you to go to the other option of removing the vertical track. If you try to remove the nuts that hold the hinges on and the nut is not coming off of the boat then it is spinning in the hole and you should not try to attempt to remove any more nuts. Just try to read tighten the nut as much as possible and prepare yourself to replace the garage door in the near future. Here are some step by step instructions for both options.

Removing the vertical track:

Step one: first thing the door must be in the down position to perform this procedure. The next thing you will need to do is try and secure the garage door to the door frame because when you we move the vertical track the door can fall back on you. If you have a garage door opener or that functions then just push the button and close the door down and do not pull on the emergency release leave the door engage this will hold the door up against the door jam while you replace parts. If you do not have a garage door opener or then you will need to get some 20 d size nails and drive at least three into this side of the garage door in cap. You just want to slide that nail against the flat side of the end of the door and driving the nail in about an inch and a half and then bending whatever is left over the edge of the garage door securing it to your door jam. If you have a single car garage size door or doors then you can sufficiently secure it with one nail if you go to the very top of the top panel of your door and drive the nail into the header beam and bend over the nail to keep it from coming back from the wall.

Step two: at this point this is where a impact drill is going to make this procedure a lot easier and shorter. If you do not have an impact drill then even a normal drill with a chuck will help you greatly but you will need a 3⁄8 ,7/16 or 1⁄2 inch socket for your impact or driver drill. If you do not have an impact in only a standard joe then you will need a ranch for either one of the sizes you will have to fit to see what size of screw head youre dealing with. If you look to the outside of your vertical tracks on the left and right hand side of your garage door you will see your jamb brackets or also called wall brackets. They are shaped like and l and they attach the track to the wall they will either be 2 or sometimes even three or four depending on how tall your garage door is if it is 8 feet or less.
Most likely you will only have two jamb brackets. You really want to try to remove the vertical track without loosening the carriage bolts or track bolts that attach the jam bracket to the track because you want the same adjustment when you put everything back together but sometimes you may have to loosen them to remove the track. The screw that you will want to remove is the lag screw that attaches the bracket to the wall or door jamb. Once you have removed the screws from the wall you will need to locate the two small track bolts at the very top of the vertical track there will be four in total but you just want to remove the bottom two or even sometimes you may just have one track bolt on top or bottom. Just remove the bottom bolts and nuts. Once the vertical track is free from the wall you may need to rotate the track clockwise to about 2 or 3 o’clock to get it off of the rollers. Now that the track is off of the door you can slide out the old rollers and then reinsert the new rollers being sure to slide them into the correct slot most of the hinges on the left and right-hand side will have two slots so the correct slot would be the one that is closest to you or the furthest away from the inside of the garage door. You should wait into you get the vertical track reinstalled before you replace the top roller because you do not want to have one whole side of the garage door not be supported it could fall onto you. Now you will need to reinstall the vertical track being sure to put it back the way you found it before you took it apart most of the time you can see the marks where the nuts have been tightened onto the track this will help you get the proper adjustment. Make sure when you are replacing any track bolts that go flat or dome shaped end of the bolt goes on the inside of the track this is so the rollers can pass through without getting hung up.

Step three: now the last step is to replace the top rollers you will have to remove the top fixture it may be standard lift or it may be low headroom lift if it is low headroom lift in the top bracket will be flat and will have the roller slides into the top of the bracket and you will notice there are two different horizontal tracks one is mostly straight the other has usually a 15 inch radius curve to it. In either case, you can either remove the top fixture if it is standard lift it will be triangular in shape or shaped like a pyramid. Or you can just remove the adjustment part of it which contains the roller and then slide the new roller in and then put roller back into track and then refasten the adjustment part of the bracket. As long as you put all the screws or nuts and bolts back in the same holes that they were before you started you should be ok. Sometimes it is a good idea to snap a quick photo on your so phone so you know what it looks like before you got started. Now you just repeat the same steps on the opposite side of the door and you should be done