Bathroom tap replacement

[mpill990]

Well despite our best efforts to drain down the water system our bathroom tap has been damaged during the recent cold spell. In fact we now have a shower inside of the bathroom cupboard

I can get my hand onto the bottom of the tap and feel the water leaking quite rapidly - although without being able to see I can't tell where exactly it is leaking from. It leaks with the tap off so I'm assuming that one of the unions or the actual tap body has been damaged - oh well...

Anyway the reason for the post is 'how do I remove the tap?'. Has anyone done this job themselves?
It looks as though I have to remove some internal torx screws and then cut away the mastic seal around the sink and lift the whole top section of the sink off?

I'm half thinking of cutting around the top of the tap and then fabricating a removable top plate so that future access will be easy..

Any help or guidance will be very greatfully received.

Thanks
Mike


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[mpill990]

So I had a bit of a delve this afternoon with my basic van toolkit - I removed the side inspection cover and gently tugged on the water feed pipes and the hot pipe dropped off.

So I think I've found the leak - see pic below. It looks as though Reich design the tap tails to 'pop-off' to prevent damage to the tap in the event of a freeze - phew!

I still need to get the sink top off as you can't reach the bottom of the tap properly in-situ.

I managed to take all of the securing screws out bar one with my basic tools so I'll have to wait until we're home to finish the repair.

I'll keep you posted with more info and pics as I make more progress

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[Sven Ole]

So I had a bit of a delve this afternoon with my basic van toolkit - I removed the side inspection cover and gently tugged on the water feed pipes and the hot pipe dropped off.

So I think I've found the leak - see pic below. It looks as though Reich design the tap tails to 'pop-off' to prevent damage to the tap in the event of a freeze - phew!

I still need to get the sink top off as you can't reach the bottom of the tap properly in-situ.

I managed to take all of the securing screws out bar one with my basic tools so I'll have to wait until we're home to finish the repair.

I'll keep you posted with more info and pics as I make more progress

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[Sven Ole]

Frost safety. I took out the shelf and made room. Drilled up better space around the underside of the faucet with hole taker. Pressed coupling back into place. Leakage ok.

 

[mpill990]

Frost safety. I took out the shelf and made room. Drilled up better space around the underside of the faucet with hole taker. Pressed coupling back into place. Leakage ok.

Nice - I'll try cutting extra space. That way easy future fixes and I won't have to butcher the mastic.
Thank you!

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[mpill990]

Quick how to below:

- remove sink unit and bowl (4x Allen screws under the sink and use a scalpel to cut mastic. Bowl 4 more Allen screws)

- completely remove the tap (you'll need a plumber's spanner shown in the picture below)

- note the tap tails will not push back in because they are secured by a stainless steel location pin (shown in pictures below) which locates a collar on the nylon tail connector. You'll need to access both sides of the tap to remove the pin. Hence having to remove the tap

- remove stainless location pin which is an easy push fit (use a 3mm Allen key or similar)

- push the nylon tail connector back in (a bit of silicon grease will help but it's an easy push fit). Push the location pin back in

- make sure all 3 pipes are secured correctly

- reassemble and enjoy your non leaking van.

Anyway I hope this helps.

It's a bit of a faff but definitely doable if you take your time don't try a force things.

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[LindaRothwell]

Hello Mike

We have just had exactly the same problem on a trip up North. First noticed that the toilet wasn't flushing enough water through to clear the pan, then the shower pressure seemed low. Discovered a leak under the tap in cupboard. Prior to this short trip we obviously hadn't emptied everything during the freezing spell in January - our waste tank had some water in that had frozen and we couldn't open the drain but after a few days of plus temperatures it defrosted and we thought we had got away with it! Thank goodness for your post and photographs which we followed, and looks like everything working well and toilet flushing too. So good to have the Forum when things go wrong!

Many thanks!

Linda

 

[LindaRothwell]

I meant to add that apart from the weak flow in the toilet and shower head, we noticed a small amount of water leaking when we opened the rear doors. Photo shows leak coming through the 'seal' on rear ledge which was worrying too but everything else seemed okay apart from shower room issues, so discovered that was the cause. Leaking all the way under flooring to the rear doors!!
We unscrewed the plastic 'guard' first to see where the water was coming from in case photo looks confusing!

 

[mpill990]

Hi Linda - glad to help!

As you now know the job isn't that daunting once you commit to it

I also thought our rear shower attachment had frozen up and failed - as it also started leaking- but after stripping the brass fitting (which was easy)it turned out to be clogged with what appeared to be limescale. A quick clean and no more problems!

Here's to leak free GC's!

All the best
Mike



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[mpill990]

I meant to add that apart from the weak flow in the toilet and shower head, we noticed a small amount of water leaking when we opened the rear doors. Photo shows leak coming through the 'seal' on rear ledge which was worrying too but everything else seemed okay apart from shower room issues, so discovered that was the cause. Leaking all the way under flooring to the rear doors!!
We unscrewed the plastic 'guard' first to see where the water was coming from in case photo looks confusing!

View attachment 104889

I'll check this on ours

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[LindaRothwell]

Still need to redo the sealant. Looking on line as believe normal sealant not as good for plastic. What have you used? Husband and I also need to decide which of us will do a better job of it!

 

[mpill990]

Still need to redo the sealant. Looking on line as believe normal sealant not as good for plastic. What have you used? Husband and I also need to decide which of us will do a better job of it!

I used normal bathroom sealant and it appears to be fine.
Providing you have a plastic profiling tool the job isn't too bad (as long as you also use the special professional technique - lots of swearing )

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[WelshGas]

Hi Linda - glad to help!

As you now know the job isn't that daunting once you commit to it

I also thought our rear shower attachment had frozen up and failed - as it also started leaking- but after stripping the brass fitting (which was easy)it turned out to be clogged with what appeared to be limescale. A quick clean and no more problems!

Here's to leak free GC's!

All the best
Mike



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Still need to redo the sealant. Looking on line as believe normal sealant not as good for plastic. What have you used? Husband and I also need to decide which of us will do a better job of it!

Shows you need to drain all the pipes and taps etc: not just the water tank in freezing conditions if not using the vehicle.
On the California VW advise removing the tap/pump fuse and opening tap to drain everything back to tank and then drain tank.
Can you not do that on the GC?

 

[LindaRothwell]

In the past the valve inside the bench cupboard has opened and dumped the water when it gets below 3 degrees but that didn't happen and we had water still in main tank too. We were lucky not more damage. Now opening everything including taps and leaving waste water pipe open too so won't happen again! Lesson learnt!

 

[LindaRothwell]

I used normal bathroom sealant and it appears to be fine.
Providing you have a plastic profiling tool the job isn't too bad (as long as you also use the special professional technique - lots of swearing )

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ha ha it is a tricky job and can get messy. Although we think we can do a better job than the VW Garage on this occasion!

 

[Mr T]

Shows you need to drain all the pipes and taps etc: not just the water tank in freezing conditions if not using the vehicle.
On the California VW advise removing the tap/pump fuse and opening tap to drain everything back to tank and then drain tank.
Can you not do that on the GC?

On the GC there are 2 drain valves for emptying the hot and cold circuits also if the water tank is empty the pump won’t run, making it easy to drain the water from taps.

 

[mpill990]

On the GC there are 2 drain valves for emptying the hot and cold circuits also if the water tank is empty the pump won’t run, making it easy to drain the water from taps.

Where are the drain valves please?

We found that opening the taps, boiler dump valve and then draining through the external shower seemed to get the most water out..

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[Mr T]

Where are the drain valves please?

We found that opening the taps, boiler dump valve and then draining through the external shower seemed to get the most water out..

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Open the electrical cupboard and there is a flap in the floor, pop this open and you’ll find the drain valves.

 

[LindaRothwell]

Also open the main water tank tap under the bed left side.

 

[mpill990]

Open the electrical cupboard and there is a flap in the floor, pop this open and you’ll find the drain valves.

Great I'll find them

Shame the dealer didn't tell us about them...

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[LindaRothwell]

Hi Mike

All this info is in the GC supplement/additional information which we almost didn't get when we purchased ours through Drive The Deal via VW Crawley. Rang them to ask where all the instructions were for the camper van part of the vehicle and had to wait for them to post the supplement taken from their demo van! Do you have the supplement?

 

[LindaRothwell]

Having said that we still caught out on the frozen tap/pipe after 23 months :{{{{

 

[mpill990]

Hi Mike

All this info is in the GC supplement/additional information which we almost didn't get when we purchased ours through Drive The Deal via VW Crawley. Rang them to ask where all the instructions were for the camper van part of the vehicle and had to wait for them to post the supplement taken from their demo van! Do you have the supplement?

We have a whole load of manuals but I have to admit I've never read them properly - stupid I know . I'll have to take a closer look..
Hopefully now that I know where the drain taps are our freezing problems are over.




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[Carryon Cali Camping]

Just wanted to say a big thank you for the details posted on “how to” on this thread! I have just spent the majority of my Sunday repairing the very same issue, although it turned out to be the cold water pipe that had disconnected from the tap.
we collected our new to us GC680 4M on Friday from a couple and today I thought I’d go over everything. I put some water in and then ran the kitchen tap…..i then started to see water dripping from the back bumper on the opposite side to the kitchen…..then when I opened the bathroom door I could see water in the shower tray……and so it went on from there…….after wondering what the …. I do now, I just googled the question and came back to this forum…..so a couple of trips to Toolstation throughout the day and I’ve now ran it a few times hot/cold and all seems to be good! i Also noticed that the shower head had a very fine hairline crack and was also dripping for a while after the shower was turned off! Again the forum pointed me where to get a replacement! So a big thanks to those who shared their experiences and instructions, especially @mpill990
just to also add, I called the previous owner this morning and he was horrified to hear what had happened and offered to get it booked in to a local to me caravan/Motorhome workshop and have it sorted at his expense.

 

[LindaRothwell]

Just wanted to say a big thank you for the details posted on “how to” on this thread! I have just spent the majority of my Sunday repairing the very same issue, although it turned out to be the cold water pipe that had disconnected from the tap.
we collected our new to us GC680 4M on Friday from a couple and today I thought I’d go over everything. I put some water in and then ran the kitchen tap…..i then started to see water dripping from the back bumper on the opposite side to the kitchen…..then when I opened the bathroom door I could see water in the shower tray……and so it went on from there…….after wondering what the …. I do now, I just googled the question and came back to this forum…..so a couple of trips to Toolstation throughout the day and I’ve now ran it a few times hot/cold and all seems to be good! i Also noticed that the shower head had a very fine hairline crack and was also dripping for a while after the shower was turned off! Again the forum pointed me where to get a replacement! So a big thanks to those who shared their experiences and instructions, especially @mpill990
just to also add, I called the previous owner this morning and he was horrified to hear what had happened and offered to get it booked in to a local to me caravan/Motorhome workshop and have it sorted at his expense.

You are most welcome! The forum is a great place to get help on various problems! Hope you enjoy your new GC680!!