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Hi I have a sink which started leaking and I managed to diagnose the cause: It seems the pipe that feeds into my p-trap is not water tight: photos below

What is the correct terminology for the slanted (should be straight) copper pipe feeding into my PVC P-trap? I intend to buy a replacement for this and install it myself.

Pipe feeding into P-trap is not straight

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    Is that a tailpiece?
    – Lee Sam
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 1:00

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That part is called a threaded tailpiece; it is the lower part of a drain/strainer assembly.

It is hard to see from your picture exactly what type of sink the drain assembly is attached to, but it does not appear to be a common conventional one.

The problem you are having is not uncommon, but it is not easy to fix. The threaded tailpiece has broken at the base of the threaded part. In other words: you have a thin metal tube with a very fine thread at the top, which threads into the bottom of the drain/strainer body. The tube has broken just at the bottom of the threads, which means the thin threaded portion of the tube is still inside of the bottom of the drain/strainer body.

This will require replacement of the entire drain/strainer assembly, not just the broken tailpiece.

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  • This type of break is usually caused by some sort of pipe-strain, i.e. some part was originally forced into position to make it all align, and failure occurred at the weakest point. P.S. that looks like a bar sink drain or something similar; we call those drain/strainer assemblies a P.O. Plug.
    – Jimmy Fix-it
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 4:43
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I'm going to go with "tailpiece"

enter image description here

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  • It looks like a tailpiece, but is there a step reduction that is leaking? It may have been fine for years but when the flow slowed it backed up and started leaking.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 1:45
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    Between the tailpiece and the P-trap would be a "tailpiece extension". Likely at some point someone made some plumbing adjustments and bodged that in at an angle. When you replace it, try sliding the horizontal pipe closer to the camera location to see if you can swing the P to be straight in line with the tailpiece to avoid that angle.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 15:01
  • @FreeMan what do you think about OP loosening the coupling nut to the horizontal pipe and rotating it to the right to get a better alignment? Its a little hard to tell from the picture angle, but maybe just squaring up the joints would do the job.
    – Tmartin
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 17:01
  • @Tmartin That could do it but the tailpipe looks corroded and should still be replaced. You're right, loosen up all the joints, straighten up everything and then re tighten.
    – JACK
    Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 17:13
  • @Tmartin that's what I was getting at. I presumed that the trap wouldn't reach further to the right because the horizontal piece was pushed too far in.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 10, 2020 at 10:37

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