Oh man, so sorry about your car! I had a near miss the other day, where I was just trying to straighten out my car in the garage, when I heard the homelink chime. I didnt know what the sound meant, cause I had just gotten the car, and my garage door is super quiet, but luckily, I saw what was happening in my side mirror, and gunned the motor to pull the car forward out of the way of the door, just in time. I immediately disabled auto-close, but after reading this thread, I think I’ll disable auto-open, too. Too bad it’s not smart enough to disable homelink commands within the geofence.
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Backing up into my garage- auto garage for some reason closed garage door as i was backing up, could
- Thread starter Infoe
- Start date
It doesn’t work. The sensors communicate via some protocol to the motor unit. Two sensor sets interfere with each other.
At least for chamberlain/liftmaster.
I think the main problem is that GPS signal inside the garage can be weak, making the car think it's not where it really is.
I have mine set to auto-open only. Last fall when I was trying to get auto-close to work, I observed lots of unpredictable actions, most of which was the door not reacting at all. So I disabled it. Auto open has been reliable once I recorded my open location far from the garage door.
The system is designed not to open 2x in close proximity (to prevent inadvertent close). You have to go way outside the geofence for the system to reset the auto-open state. I don't know the exact distance, but have to drive down my street, close to a quarter mile before Homelink resets. This means when you approach your house and the door opens, Homelink will not issue another open command unless you drive away from your house for about 1/4mi and then come back.
I've never had it issue an open command when starting the car from inside the garage. Presumably it is smart enough to know the car's been in Park and it isn't an auto-open situation.
I have mine set to auto-open only. Last fall when I was trying to get auto-close to work, I observed lots of unpredictable actions, most of which was the door not reacting at all. So I disabled it. Auto open has been reliable once I recorded my open location far from the garage door.
The system is designed not to open 2x in close proximity (to prevent inadvertent close). You have to go way outside the geofence for the system to reset the auto-open state. I don't know the exact distance, but have to drive down my street, close to a quarter mile before Homelink resets. This means when you approach your house and the door opens, Homelink will not issue another open command unless you drive away from your house for about 1/4mi and then come back.
I've never had it issue an open command when starting the car from inside the garage. Presumably it is smart enough to know the car's been in Park and it isn't an auto-open situation.
SpiceWare
Member
I saw a recommendation somewhere on this site to set the HomeLink trigger point at the end of your driveway(where it meets the street) in order to prevent things like this from occurring.
Sorry that happened to you.
I did something similar to my Model S about 5 years ago.
In my case, I drove out of the garage to realign my car in the garage. Moved just far enough to trigger the toggle. The door came down on the back bumper as I was backing up.
You may want to look into repair of the glass. I can’t tell the size, but if small enough it may be worthwhile to check. I have had a windshield fixed a couple of times in the past with good results.
What I did to prevent this from ever being an issue again is to increase the detection range. Now the garage triggers when I reach the end of my driveway. I don’t trigger it if my car is close to the garage.
If I am backing in, the garage closes before I reach the threshold.
I did something similar to my Model S about 5 years ago.
In my case, I drove out of the garage to realign my car in the garage. Moved just far enough to trigger the toggle. The door came down on the back bumper as I was backing up.
You may want to look into repair of the glass. I can’t tell the size, but if small enough it may be worthwhile to check. I have had a windshield fixed a couple of times in the past with good results.
What I did to prevent this from ever being an issue again is to increase the detection range. Now the garage triggers when I reach the end of my driveway. I don’t trigger it if my car is close to the garage.
If I am backing in, the garage closes before I reach the threshold.
mine is set at 40 feet which is at the street before my driveway. it should not have gone off.
See post #6 above.
Neither the garage door nor the driver is going to be able to react quick enough to avoid scrapes and damage if/when the door comes down on a moving vehicle.
Yes. It could.
Or if someone is working in the yard with the door open, it could close when you come home.
Xminus6
Member
Yes, unless their car is breaking the safety beam obviously. But I've come home when I've had an electrician working in my garage and they don't love it when the door starts to close unexpectedly when they have tools in the path of the door.
mtndrew1
Active Member
I downloaded the car manual to an iPad the other night and sat in the car tinkering with everything.
This is when I learned there is a chime you can enable for the auto open/closing feature and that there is a “skip” button that comes up on the screen to override it for several seconds after you hear the chime.
I enabled the chime and watched for the skip button last night when I got home and I think it’s an effective measure to mitigate the potential for vehicle damage. As I approached my garage I knew what it was going to do because of the noise.
Still can’t get my gate programmed, just my garage door opener. Gate isn’t a rolling code but my Volt’s Homelink worked fine with both.
This is when I learned there is a chime you can enable for the auto open/closing feature and that there is a “skip” button that comes up on the screen to override it for several seconds after you hear the chime.
I enabled the chime and watched for the skip button last night when I got home and I think it’s an effective measure to mitigate the potential for vehicle damage. As I approached my garage I knew what it was going to do because of the noise.
Still can’t get my gate programmed, just my garage door opener. Gate isn’t a rolling code but my Volt’s Homelink worked fine with both.
SpiceWare
Member
model3fan
Member
Sorry this happened, but I appreciate you sharing with the community. I'll definitely consider skipping auto close because of it.
EV-lutioin
Active Member
Most doors also have an photo eye safety sensor that stops the door if anything breaks the beam.
The car is too high to set that off except at the wheels. If your trunk was sitting under the garage threshold and the door activates, it will not trigger the sensors and the door will contact your car.
So if the OP had been slowly backing into the garage when the trigger went off, the safety sensor would not be triggered and he also could not see the door moving in the rear camera or rear mirror until it was too late.
I'm glad I saw this too - definitely considering leaving this feature disabled when my M3 arrives. Thanks so much for sharing - hope the damage is an easy fix!
TBH I had no idea that the car automatically did this outside of summon. I thought if you were pulling in or out, the screen pops up a dialog asking if you want to toggle the door, and only sends the signal if you hit the right button. That's not how it works?
TBH I had no idea that the car automatically did this outside of summon. I thought if you were pulling in or out, the screen pops up a dialog asking if you want to toggle the door, and only sends the signal if you hit the right button. That's not how it works?
How many devices (fobs, cars, etc) do you have setup to control your gate wirelessly? I know some devices have a limit. I had to do some kind of master reset on my garage door opener and then relearn everything the last time I got a new car. I think it could only be setup for 4 or maybe 5 connections.
