a few weeks ago I posted a message about balancing garage doors. I had just installed a new garage door opener, but was concerned that my roll-up door weighed 40 pounds when closed - it's supposed to be only 10 to 20 lbs.
I was provided an excelllent web link regarding doing it myself, and it turned out to be an easy project, and a good learning experience. All i needed was a couple of half inch diameter steel rods 18" long. Once I achieved the proper balance (weight was 5 go 15 pounds when closed), the garage door opener worked great, but the door was really noisy and clanky and the springs seemed to hang a bit near the beginning of the opening sequence. I assumed that the parts were all old and eventually i'd need to replace them.
but then i thoroughly oiled the springs, rollers, and cable pulley with 3-in-1 oil. It only took a fraction of the small can of oil....but now a few days later, the garage door opens and closes with a whisper....it's really amazing, i highly recommend that anybody with a noisy garage door do this, it should make it last much longer.
paul