How to Erase Garage Door Opener Codes from Car

Having a car with a built-in garage door opener can be very convenient and is a great tool to have. But what do you do when it comes time to sell your old car and get a new one? What about when you move? These are times that force you to figure out how to erase garage door opener codes from your car. Good news for you, it’s easy and quick to do, just follow our simple 7 step guide below.

Built-in garage door openers are great. You can’t lose or forget it, and it’s always right there when and where you need it. Plus, it can be programmed to work with a wide variety of garage door opener brands and models. Without it, you’ll need to go out and buy a universal garage door opener, so hopefully, your new car has one too!

Erasing Garage Door Opener Codes From Your Car

Remembering to erase garage door opener codes from a car when you sell it is almost always an afterthought, something you recognize at just the last minute. It’s easy enough to do, but we’ve all been there; scrambling around for the manual, or even worse – trying to remember how to do it from memory. Don’t worry, we’re here for you.

How to Erase Garage Door Codes from Car in 7 Quick Steps

If can't quickly find the manual for your car, just follow these easy instructions. They only take a few minutes.

Step 1. Start the ignition on your vehicle

Step 2. Push and hold both of the outside buttons at the same time

Step 3. Watch the LED. It should go through a cycle* of solid on to blinking quickly. Once the light starts to blink, you can release the buttons. The codes have been deleted. This takes roughly 20 seconds.

Step 4. You’ll want to double-check by pushing each of the buttons to ensure it no longer works on your door.

4 steps of erasing garage door opener codes form car in pictures 1 - start ignition, 2 - push down outside buttons for 20s, 3 - watch for indicator that code was removed, 4 - test button again to make sure code was deleted

That’s it! Quick and easy to do.

*This light sequence might be slightly different in various vehicles, but the steps are similar and it should be somewhat self-explanatory. Other examples might include needing to wait an additional 10 seconds until the blinking lights stop flashing or notes on the dash that say “clearing channels” and then “channels cleared”.

Reasons to Erase Garage Door Opener Codes from Your Car

Remembering to erase garage door opener codes from a car when you sell it is almost always an afterthought, something you recognize at just the last minute. It’s easy enough to do, but we’ve all been there; scrambling around for the manual, or even worse – trying to remember how to do it from memory. Don’t worry, we’re here for you.

Remove the Garage Door Opener Codes

Wondering why you might need to erase these codes? Here are a few good reasons:

Trading-in or selling your current vehicle
Moving to a new home
Passing your car along to a family member
To move this particular door’s code to one of the other available buttons

You don’t want the new owner of your old car to have access to opening your garage door at any time. Nor do you want to have your car’s buttons still set to operate a house you no longer own or go to.

young man selling a used car to a young woman and handing her the keys through the window

Other Things You Should You Need to Remove

By the way, while you’re at it, you should also remove your “home” address and reset the navigation system, log out of any cloud accounts, and unpair all of your Bluetooth devices too.

You might wonder if all this is really necessary. It’s just a good safety precaution all-around!

HomeLink

Many late-model vehicles on the road today use a HomeLink garage door opener that’s built into the car. A HomeLink device is integrated into the car with a transmitter and a receiver. It’s easily programmed to remotely activate RF (radio frequency) devices such as garage doors and community or estate gates.

HomeLink can learn the codes directly from your original remote and use either standard or rolling codes, meaning they can operate garage door opening systems from a variety of manufacturers.

HomeLink Compatibility Chart

HomeLink is compatible with many (maybe most) of the major garage door opener manufacturers. It’s also a major player in hundreds of different types of vehicles coming off the assembly line each and every day. For more info, see our HomeLink Capatibility Chart shown below.

How to Erase HomeLink Garage Door Opener

If you have a HomeLink device, you’re probably wondering how to erase its codes before you get rid of your car. They look the same as any other generic built-in remote and basically follow the exact same steps as above, with the exception that HomeLink says you only need to hold the buttons down for roughly 10 seconds.

HomeLink’s Guidance

If you’re having any issues at all, HomeLink provides detailed instructions for all compatible vehicle models that should help clear things up. Just enter your vehicle’s year, make, and model on their website. It’ll then ask you for the make and model of your garage door opener.

Once you enter this information, I’ll take you to a unique page that seems to be assembled just for you. It’s dedicated to making your specific combination of vehicle and opener work together.

homelink instructions how to erase garage door opener codes from car (screenshot from homelink's website)

HomeLink’s Guidance

There are instructions listed, and even a link to printable instructions so you can take them out to your car with you. The instructions for many of the vehicle modes even have a video showing you exactly what to do! You can’t be the ease of this process.

Now that you know how to erase garage door opener codes from car, there’s no need to worry when it comes time to sell or trade in your car. You can do this yourself in just a few minutes!

How to Erase HomeLink Garage Door Opener

Having the ability to open your garage door from the inside of your vehicle is convenient and useful. However, when you pass along or sell that particular vehicle, you must erase the codes from the car so that the new owner doesn’t have access to your property.

Many people don’t think about how to erase garage door opener codes from a car when they sell it until the last minute. It’s an easy process but can be easily forgotten in the hustle and bustle of moving day. Just follow the steps listed above and you’ll be good to go in just a few minutes.