Saturday morning at around 4:30am, I was somewhat half asleep and I heard this strange sound along with my room shaking for about a second. A few hours later I tell my parents that I heard this sound, (thought maybe something in another room fell) but didn't know where it came from. We all check the house and everything seemed to be order. I then thought that maybe I was dreaming it.

So, I'm about to head to the bank and I open the garage door which for some reason did not open. The motor worked, but the rest of the door didn't. As it turns out, that sound I heard was in fact the Spring that tensions the door to help bring it up. It had snapped and uncoiled which made that sound and shake. So at this point, my Mini is stuck in stall 1 of our garage.

Here's a picture first of all of what it looks like now:



So for the meantime I drove our family's spare car (Audi S4) for a couple days and then I suggested to instead of just lifting up the garage door with a couple people, lets make it interesting by manuvering the Mini out of stall 2. (right next to stall 1)

So yesterday the family is in the garage to witness this unusual event and I asked my older brother to take pictures just so I could show everyone. (and of course have a good story to tell )

I'll let the pictures do the talking. (btw, that's my dad helping to guide me so I don't hit anything.)



Basically, it's just a few times going back and forth while turning the wheel to make the angle enough to back out of stall 2. And in the final picture I just back out fully, drive around the neighborhood and park it back in the driveway.

So for the next few days, my Mini will be outside while the garage is waiting to get fixed. (don't know exactly when that is)

 

lol thats pretty funny.

When my spring snapped on my garage door it put a nice hole in the sheetrock. The door didn't have the safety cables which I added when I replaced the springs.

 

Home Depot is doing full new door installs for about $750. You're probably looking at a $200 or so bill.

Also a good floor jack or two will help, not that you're plainning to do this often. For some of my non-running cars, I got some tire dollies from harbor freight. I think they were $40 for two. I got two sets....

Matt

 

Our garage has safety cables, but when the spring snapped, the cables uncoiled and now they're very loose and whatnot. I believe they are still good, but we'll find out when the spring is replaced.

 

yeah I didn't read the last bit, and saw the first pic of you r car and thought to myself, why don't you just drive out the other door, you can manuver over there.

 

Just means your garage is too big and/or too neat. Most people don't have any maneuvering room at all (if they can still park inside). Bet it made for a good laugh!

 

I think my dream garage, will have something like a locomotive turntable for each car. Drive in, then spin it around. No reverse.

Obviously, we're talking about a LARGE garage.

 

I'm thinking more in terms of an Airplane hanger much like Jay Leno has.

 

Oh Snaps, you couldn't lift up the door...weak...real weak

Amazing how heavy those things are without the springs. When I built my addition, I accidentally dropped the doors with only three panels installed...man did that thing come crashing down hard.

 

That happened to me at my other house and the door/spring was directly under our bed...and it snapped at 3am I grabbed my gun and looked in the garage but didn't see anything then went to bed...of course I found out the way you did...

But why didn't you just disconnect the lift and hoist the door open like I did?

 

best thing i've seen all day! cheers to the mini's mininess

 

Pfft, where's the fun in that. I love taking the cunning approach to different situations.

I honestly know I could've lifted the door, but I chose not to. My parents even asked me that same question and I simply said what I'm telling you now. I love adventure.

 

MINIs are escape artists! They REFUSE to be confined to a garage and be denied their birth right of motoring!

Great pictures...thanks for sharing

 

I love going where most cars can't: parking in spaces half filled with snow, driving around annoying speed bumps in the parking garage, etc.

 

I love that too. In fact if you missed it, I had another situation that demonstrated the Mini's mininess.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=104591

 

Reminds me of the scene in Austin Powers with the golf cart trying to turn around in the hallway. Though it would appear the MINI would have been a better choice. Nice story and good documentation.

 

sorry about the door, but the photo sequence was a blast!

 

... and the rest of you - hire someone to do this type of work for you. Garage springs have been known to kill people.

BTW, Jeffc... do you do garage calls?

 

Sometimes in life you gotta deal with making sacrifices like that

 

I love taking the Audi out every now and then. (it's an '01 btw) Actually I take it out for a drive almost every month. Cars need to be driven, not sitting to be looked at all day.

 

your lucky...the same thing happend to my garage, but the spring snapped and went sailing into my srt4...at the time i had only had it for 3 weeks. It left a huge dent / scratch in the side.

 

Well, I found out a couple hours ago that this morning, it was fixed. Didn't realize it when I got back from classes earlier this afternoon though. I will say that the garage door is so much quieter...much quieter. When I tested it, my brother asked if I had actually pushed the button because he could barely hear it compared to before.

But I still cannot park the Mini back in the garage because there's some furniture blocking my path. So it'll be a couple more days outside I'm afraid.

 

What a great picture story....

Donna