Shower valve screws keep coming loose!

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Studly

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Does anyone have any tips for keeping a shower valve's screws tight? We have about a 25 year old Kohler valve, single handle faucet. After you remove the handle, you can see three long screws that hold the valve together. They come loose over time and cause a leak in the valve. As a test, I tightened the three screws yesterday and tested everything, turning the shower on and off, making sure it doesn't leak. A few hours later I check, and the screws are no longer tight. I think the vibrations from pulling out the handle and pushing it in are causing it to loosen.

Should I use the blue threadlocker on the screws? Not sure if that would work since the screws go through the valve and are exposed to moisture. For now, as I was caulking in that area, I added some Polyseamseal (since it is also an adhesive) over and around the screw heads to try to keep the screws in place. But not sure if that is strong enough to hold them.

Anyone else run into this problem and how did you solve it? I thought of putting a nut on the back of each screw where the 3 long screws come out of the back of the valve, but that would be really tough to do, since there is hardly any room behind the valve to do that.
 
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Jadnashua

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Have not experienced this problem, but the blue thread lock compound, at least, should mean you'd still be able to take it apart later, should you need to. That stuff cures with a moisture catalyst (I think), so a little bit shouldn't hurt.
 

ShowerKing

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I always keep a small bottle of women's clear finger nail polish in my arsenal for things like this. It works really well. No jokes please (-:
 
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