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I am dealing with a bathroom tap and wanting to replace the quarter turn tap valve as the tap is leaking.

Here is the tap (I cannot find any brand details)

Bathroom tap

Here is a close up of the cold tap:

Cold tap close up

I can pop the cap off the cold tap, where I would expect to find a screw, but there is nothing:

enter image description here

Note: The hot tap and bath taps all look the same when I remove the cap (There is nothing to unscrew).

I thought perhaps an alan key might be the trick in the little hole:

Little hole inside tap underneath cap

But the alan key does not work as the hole is clearly not designed for it.

What I have tried so far:

  1. Chatted to plumbing shop - the suggestion was to drill out the screw.

  2. I have removed the levers on the tap to see if that would give access. The problem is that I can only remove three of the levers on the handle. I used pliers with rubber around the tap lever and I could still not remove the lever. Even after using Q20. There seems to be no obvious access point from the 3 levers that I removed.

Questions: Does anyone have any suggestions as to what brand of tap this may be? (I have searched all over). The guy who did the bathroom is long gone.

Does anyone have any idea as to how I met get access to the valve to replace it?

Many thanks!

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    How far into the handle do the levers go? Is it possible the lever that you can't remove is what's holding it on? Can you see the shaft in the center from any of the holes where the three handles were removed from?
    – Platinum Goose
    Oct 24, 2018 at 14:29
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    The offset hole in the inner metal part suggests to me that you can unscrew the inner part while holding the handle stationary. The best tool would be a cylinder of a diameter to fit loosely in the recess and with a pin that would go into the hole. You would twist probably CCW and the part would come out.
    – Jim Stewart
    Oct 24, 2018 at 15:23
  • @PlatinumGoose: I cannot see the shaft from the three levers I have removed. From the three that I have removed they all end as neat shaft relating to the lever only. Yes, it is quite possible that lever I cannot remove is holing it on. However, I have tried all possible options I have to remove the last lever. I am worried I will damage the tap further if I keep wrenching it to hard. I still need to try wrapping some bicycle tube around the lever and then using the plyers.
    – Jono
    Oct 25, 2018 at 8:17

2 Answers 2

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Solution!

I bought a box spanner and removed the entire unit (including the silver connecting hoses) and then went to a few local plumbing shops with the whole tap.

It seems to be a rare type of unit for London.

Step 1: Turn the water off at the stopcock.

Step 2: Pull (Yes pull) the handle out. The handle had two rubber rings holding it into the concealment cylinder (The cylinder between the handle and the main shaft).

Step 3: Unscrew the concealment cylinder (similar to video 2 in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQc5WWbKmnI).

Step 4: Unscrew the screw holding a plastic connector for the tap out of the cartridge.

Step 5: Remove the cartridge and replace.

Step 6: Put things back together :)

Good luck!

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I would try to use a pair of needle nose pliers to unscrew the inner part. Insert the point of one side of the pliers in the offset hole and open the pliers so that the back of the other side is against the inside of the outer part. Twist to see if the part with the hole in it will unscrew.

Alternatively you hold the inner part still and unscrew the handle around it. Once the handle comes off there would be wrenching faces which would allow removal of the cartridge.

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