Toilet tank bolts leaking!
Hello, I am having one heck of a time trying to get my one toilet tank bolt from not leaking! Only one leaks, other is fine. I have torn the tank off 5 times now. I had the tank off to make more room for the remodeling I was doing. Neighbor who helped me put the tank on originally said he couldn't figure out why it was leaking either! He said he had never had a problem with one, ever! He said he had probably installed 100 toilets over the years and had never had that problem! He suggested maybe I put some blue silicone gasket maker on the rubber and see what happens. Any opinions, advice are always appreciated!! Thanks, Jack Assuming you are using new bolts/gaskets the first thing you want to do is make sure that there isn't a hairline crack around the bolt hole.If there is you'll never get it to not leak and you need a new tank. Adding gasket maker/sealant etc is an idea as long as fresh parts aren't doing the job. This is also assuming that the tank is level and the bolts aren't unequally tightened.Also if you are using an old or incorrect tank to bowl gasket that could throw off things. I have seen lots of them leak. Usually because there was only one set of nuts, the ones holding the tank on the bowl. My remedy was do like many old time tanks and put a set of nuts directly on the outside of the bottom of the tank. Then use a second set to hold the tank to the toilet bowel. Are you installing metal washers inside the tank? Originally Posted by ray2047 I have seen lots of them leak. Usually because there was only one set of nuts, the ones holding the tank on the bowl. My remedy was do like many old time tanks and put a set of nuts directly on the outside of the bottom of the tank. Then use a second set to hold the tank to the toilet bowel. The original builder used one set of nuts on all of the tanks in my house and they seem to seal this way forever until you remove the tank and then you can never get them to seal. Only way i figured it out was by buying a new set and following the instructions. SOB builders must save a mint on all those nuts! Thanks everyone! I tried once again with no success! I bought a brand new bolt kit and reinstalled them using the blue gasket maker silicone. I used the 2 bolts with the metal washer, followed by the rubber. Put gasket maker around the rubber and seated the rubbers to the bottom of the tank. I then put the same rubber, metal nut combo on the bottom. Tightened the wingnut as equally as I could and waited 24 hours. Tried today and it still leaks! I have taken the tank off about 3 times but I may have to again to check for cracks around the bolts. I know the toilet isn't the most level, but it had sealed before. Only thing I did when I remodeled was to add 1/8 inch tile board behind the toilet. Neighbor guy said maybe the 1/8 inch I added may have pushed the toilet forward and that may be what's causing my problem? Thanks again! Jack Jack, Just to make sure we are on the same page the HW should be assembled as follows: Bolt Metal washer rubber washer tank rubber washer metal washer nut - tighten this nut independently from wingnut toliet base nut or wing nut With this arrangement the wingnut has little if any effect on sealing. In fact if you over tighten the wingnut you may negate the effect of the second nut. My toliet base even has a recess for the second nut. Again for some reason contractors will omit the intermediate nut which seems to work when the unit is new. I went through the same rigamarou as you did until I installed the center nut. Apologies if you are already doing this but I don't see how it could leak if the center nut is tight and the wing nut is just snug. The rubber washers must be tight on the bolt shaft also so water can not run down the bolt shaft. This is also why it's a good reason to get all new HW that is made to work together. I'm going mostly from memory here but that's what mine looks like. I have a Mansfield toliet. I suppose you could even run an experiment with the tank off the toliet and check for leaks. I may have the bolts on wrong! I'll check them and see! Thanks again! Jack I put the bolts on right this time, although it's still leaking! What's odd is it seems to leak more when you flush the toilet. Like it leaks more as water is entering and exiting. When the water is just sitting idle in the tank it hardly leaks at all. I looked it over again for cracks and couldn't find any. I'm about to say, screw it and buy a new toilet! Any advice, opinions, are always welcome! Thanks! Jack I had a similar problem and it was my fault. I was putting the metal washer under the brass bolt head and that created the leak. The rubber must go against the brass head to seal against leaks down the treads of the bolt along with sealing against the tank wall. (No metal washer) goes inside the tank anywhere in this repair. That right off the box of a ACE hardware kit. Good luck.. Larry Correct. No metal washers inside the tank. This isn't a tank bolt problem anyway; when he described that leaks more when you flush it ...it means that it describes the tank to bowl spud gasket is either misaligned, deteriorated or not the right one for the toilet. You need to get the OEM gasket to correct this problem. I have done a few hundred of these in my life and the only time I suffered brain damage was about 10 yrs ago with a Gerber closet. I only recall that you MUST have the OEM donut. There are probably some other brands that require this also. I do think the tank to bowl gasket is your problem since it leaks more when flushed. Thanks all! I believe and hope your right! I put on a new donut gasket today and last I knew I only saw a drop or 2 on the floor. I thought that also might be the problem as the donut gasket looked pretty rough! Also, someone had put silicone all around it at one time. So, I scraped all that off and replaced the gasket. Flushed the toilet about 6 times and no leaks. I do have another question. This house I'm working on is one I inherited and grew up in. My question is: How come some toilets sweat a lot and some seem to not sweat at all? The one at the house I'm working on has always sweated a lot! Any ideas? Thanks! Jack Sweating is due to cold water in the tank and warm humid air in the room. Lots of times the closer to the water supply, the water will be colder, so the tank sweats. The ones at the other end of the house or upstairs have time to warm the water as it travels through the pipes (or has been sitting in the pipes) so it comes in the tank warm or ambient..no sweating occurs. Also, many times the tank in a 1/2 bath won't sweat, but the full bath will. Someone needs to take shorter showers and run the exhaust fan longer..lol. Thx 4 taking the time to give ppl advice. It's because if this advice I went back to the toilet with success. It turns out my toilet was only leaking when flushed. I secured the bolt with and without the metal Washer as a test. It seemed the bolts were leaking when I sat it on the toilet so because u guys said the water was coming from the gasket, I checked it. Turns out the tank wasn't situated on the toilet straight or in my case crooked. After turning the tank a little the leaking stopped. My tank can't be straight. It must be slanted to keep my casket from leaking. And here I thought the water was coming from the bolts. Thx everyone for posting this stuff. I hope mine helps someone else. Kay. I realize this thread is old however, it was able to help me with a problem I have stressed about for months. Thank you ALL for your input! It was the discussion itself that led me to resolve my leaking toilet tank problem. In a nutshell... Had to go in and replace fill valve, did that problem fixed however isn't this sometimes the case. Fix one thing and another thing comes up. While replacing the fill valve figured I would replace the nasty looking bolts and washers that attach the fill tank to the toilet bowl itself. All brand new hardware, rr and now one of the three bolts is leaking water. Brand new washers, prepped the area properly and still it leaks. Well, in the end after reading this post I saw where someone had mentioned that there is to be NO metal washers in the tank(above the rubber gasket). I would have sworn (but wouldn't bet my life on it) that the old hardware I removed had metal washers and that is why I included them thinking they were needed. However two out of the three are not leaking so as the saying goes... if it ain't broke, don't mess with it. I removed the one metal washer and done, NO MORE LEAKING! YES!! Ok, so not exactly in a nutshell...lol Thanks again!!! Glad some of our older posts help with problems, and glad you are reading them. Let us know if we can help further. Sorry to revive an old thread again, but just wanted to thank the members here as it solved my problem as well. Toilet was running, so I bought a new flush valve assembly and the toilet began leaking from the back when flushed. I returned that kit and bought one to replace everything on the inside and I got it so it was leaking out of only one bolt.I have a Gerber toilet and reading this thread made me try everything with the old sponge gasket. It didn't feel like it fit right at all, but once I added the middle washer and nut back into the assembly and tightened everything it looks and works like a charm. Thanks to everyone (especially Dunbar Plumber and Handyman663) for saving me a call to the plumber! The best way to seal the hold down bolts at the base of the toilet tank is to coat the inside rubber washer with plumbers pipe dope and the rubber washer on the outside of the tank with latex caulk. Install the hold-down bolts and tighten the bolts to the tank with hex nuts. I use a slotted screwdriver from the inside of the tank. A little bit past hand tight should be sufficient- be careful not to over-tighten as you risk cracking the tank. Put the tank aside for 30-60 min, to give the pipe dope and caulk a chance to set. Re-install the tank on the toilet. Thread ran its course..... Closed. Please start new thread with similar issues.
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