Here’s how to troubleshoot most common causes of a wobbly toilet seat.
By Becca Lewis
If you have noticed a wobble in your toilet seat, you might think you need to have a lot of experience to fix it, but it’s easier than you might think to do it yourself. All you’ll need is a few simple tools and some elbow grease. All you need is a screwdriver, an adjustable wrench, and some gloves.
To start, take off the plastic caps on the hinge part of the seat that cover the hardware that attaches the hinges to the toilet. Some of these caps will have tabs that push in to release them, while others will come free with a firm tug. Once these are removed, you might need to clean underneath them before getting to work on the bolts—and if you notice corrosion, it might be time to swap hardware.
How to tighten or replace a toilet seat’s hardware
The primary reason a toilet seat will wobble is because the bolts holding it onto the toilet have become loose. To fix this, use the screwdriver on the top side and your adjustable wrench on the underside of the bolt to tighten it. Make sure before tightening that the washers are in place between the bolts and the seat so the hardware fits properly and doesn’t make direct contact with the porcelain. If any of these parts is damaged or missing, you can get a toilet seat repair kit that comes with a few sizes of washers and a tightening tool. If the hardware needs to be replaced, you can also get replacement bolts.
How to replace a toilet seat
If tightening the bolts or replacing damaged parts doesn’t work, it might be time to replace your toilet seat. If the hinge is broken, it’s time to replace the whole seat. Likewise, if the bolt holes are worn out, it’s also time to replace the seat. To do this, choose a new seat and then use your screwdriver and wrench to remove the old bolts. The new seat will come with new parts to attach it, and you can use the same tools to install the new seat as you used to remove the old one. Make sure that you tighten the bolts firmly to avoid causing a wiggle in the newly installed seat. Consider choosing a soft-close lid to prevent having the same problem again.
Use shims and check for leaks
The other thing you should check if your toilet seat is wobbling is that it’s not the toilet itself that’s wobbling. If this is the problem, you should try and address it as soon as possible because a wobbling toilet can leak from the seal underneath it. You can use toilet shims to correct this, but you’ll also need to re-caulk around the base of the toilet. If this is the issue, you should also check around the toilet for leaks. If there’s an issue with the seal underneath where your toilet drains, it can cause problems with the flooring. Make sure there’s no water leaking into the floor by adding some food coloring to the water in the toilet and watch to see if any appears around the base of the toilet.