As technology continues to advance with leaps and bounds, so do the many benefits we get to enjoy due to these advances. One such benefit is the garage door opener. The garage door opener has come a long way since the idea was first conceived in 1926. What started as a keypad on a post outside your garage or at the end of your driveway has transformed into the high tech digital technology we know and love today. Now, most vehicles have built-in garage door openers. The controls are either located on the sun visor, or the console. Unfortunately, these do not come automatically programmed to your garage door. You will have to program it yourself. Now, if you are like most people, you cringed at those words but fear not, programming your garage door opener to your car is actually pretty simple. Check out the instructions below and you will be able to open and close your garage door from your car in no time.
The first thing you will want to do is to reference your vehicle owner’s manual to locate the transmitter buttons in your car. They are normally located on the visor or the console. Next, and this is the most important part, test your garage door opener remote to make sure it is already programmed and opens your garage door. You must have a working garage door remote if you are going to program your car to open and close the garage door. Some cars require all previously programmed buttons to be cleared or reset before reprogramming them. Check your owner’s manual to see if this is a requirement for your vehicle.
Once you have opened your garage door, and if necessary cleared or reset the button in your car, you will need to find the “learn” button on your garage door opener. For most openers, it is located on the logic board which is on the back of the opener. The logic board is like the brains of the machine. The computer in the logic board uses a multi-code system so that every time you press the button on your remote control, several signals are used. This makes it difficult for your code to be stolen by a code-grabber and keeps thieves out. Liftmaster, Craftsman, and Chamberlain learn buttons are usually red/orange, yellow or purple squares. The Genie garage door opener’s learn button will say “learn button”. Press and release the learn button. This action should be a firm brief press. Do not hold the learn button down. Holding the learn button down will erase all of the programming from the machine, and you will have to reprogram all of your remotes. DO NOT HOLD THE LEARN BUTTON DOWN.
After you have briefly pressed and released the learn button, press the remote-control button holding it for a moment. You also need to quickly press the built-in button in your car. You may need to recruit someone to help you with this as you need to press the built-in button in your car within 30 seconds of pressing the learn button. Once the machine has accepted the code, you should hear a click. If using the Genie garage door opener, press the built-in button in your car one more time. For the Liftmaster, Craftsman, Raynor and Sears models the light on the machine may flash. If you have successfully programmed your car, when you press the button in your car again the garage door should close. If you have completed all of the steps and the transmitter buttons in your car do not work, do not be discouraged. In most cases, it takes multiple attempts at programming your car to your garage door opener. Simply stay calm and start at the beginning again.
