Liftmaster door opener: strange behavior

I hope someone knows what this problem is. My garage door works fine until it gets afternoon sun on it, something heats up, and then it won't close. I live in a climate where it reaches 85 to 105 degrees from mid April until mid October. My garage door faces west. I can get home at 4:00PM and the door will open but after parking the car it will not close. It moves about a foot or two, bucks a few times, and then returns to its open position. A relay on the opener motor clicks about six times along with flashing lights and then stops.

I've tried greasing the tracks. I've noticed that there was a lot of rubber on the tracks at the curve and just below it. I've tried putting spacers in the connectors just below the curve to move the track slightly inward as it looked like the rollers might be too close to the inside of the tracks. Neither of these attempted fixes those worked. I've noticed that the center track is about 3/4" lower at the motor than near the curve so the motor is pushing uphill very slightly when trying to close. I haven't tried to level it yet.

Does anyone have an idea of what is wrong? It only happens when trying to close, not when opening the door. If I wait until the evening and the sun is down it will close. So it must be the heat causing the issue.

 

It sounds like the sun is shining directly into the safety sensor receiver side.
You could try reversing the two units.

The safety system is only used when the door closes.
The sun is keeping the transmitter's signal from being properly received.

 

Pjmax,

Thanks for that advice. It worked. From another forum I had received recs to try shadowing the sensor with jury rig boxes or toilet paper rolls. None of them worked during the late afternoon when there was a lot of glare. I had forgotten your advice and so when everything failed I finally called my local vendor who had installed the door. The tech told me to try reversing the sensors; just like your advice.

Happy camper now.

 

Thanks for stopping by and letting us know how you made out.