Toto Soft Close Repair?

[Brendoni]

Just FYI, the picture just above in Brendoni's post, and any results I get with an internet search on "Toto TCH367S", looks nothing like what I've found
in the soft-close mechanism for Toto elongated soft-close seats SS114#XX.

Thanks for the head up. To be honest, I have not taken apart the several SS114 seats that need to be repaired. When I get around to it, will put up pics. From my limited research I have here, it seems the older seats were made in USA for TOTO by Centoco, so it's possible the mechanism are also made by the same company?

 

[Kreemoweet]

Thanks for the head up. To be honest, I have not taken apart the several SS114 seats that need to be repaired. When I get around to it, will put up pics. From my limited research I have here, it seems the older seats were made in USA for TOTO by Centoco, so it's possible the mechanism are also made by the same company?

I just fixed a soft-close SS114 (or very similar model) seat yesterday, but I forgot to take pictures. It was pretty old it seems, maybe at least 20-30 years. The mechanism and procedure
described in post #4 is accurate, as far as it goes. The mechanism seems to be identical to that in a new SS114 I just bought last week.
It's really quite simple, but it involves bending little prongs/tabs of plastic and doing so without breaking them is quite challenging, as was the whole
trick of pulling out the metal hinge shafts from the left and right hinges. The tool I succeeded with there was a long curved locking hemostat.

Then removing the damper assemblies requires bending another little
plastic lock tab. The assemblies are identical, but will only fit back in the seat one way. For some reason, I found I had to have the hinge/seat/cover in
the full-open position to get things back together. Only one of the damper assemblies was defective, and it was obvious it was missing most of the
original damping fluid. I used a little tube of Permatex Dielectric Tune-up Grease (available at most auto parts stores, I would imagine) to top up the
two fluid chambers in the assembly. It's a silicone grease a little bit thicker than what I found already in the damper channels.

The repaired seat has been working fine so far. FYI, the 2 little clear soft plastic pads that go between the seat and the bowl will discolor and
absorb un-removable "toilet odors" over time. I would recommend replacing those if possible. I've only seen them available as part of
a Toto toilet installation kit.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Sarg]

$4 at Wallyworld for 3 oz. ( 5" tube" )

 

[smarbin]

We have an SS114 seat & lid that is ~10 yrs old. The seat closed softly, but the lid recently started slamming down, and then the seat started to come loose (this is a separate issue - basically the rubber in the Top Mounting Seat Hardware THU651N seems to have failed).

I called Toto, they told me it can't be fixed, but after reading all these comments I decided to take it apart. The seat and lid were in good shape, the cartridges looked decent, it just seemed like it needed new bolts/nuts to attach to the bowl. And I figured if we can keep another big piece of plastic out of the landfill, that's always good.

When I took it apart, I found both cartridges had leaked some grease but they both still had some clear grease left in them. I noticed that the cartridges had little cracks in them and the o rings weren't in perfect shape either - I assume that is how the grease was leaking out. So it seemed like without new cartridges anything I do will be a short term solution since it will leak out again. Note: Both cartridges seem to say 11X14E034B on them, but that doesn't turn up any search results.

I tried to find the Permatex @kreemoweet mentioned, but no luck at a local auto parts store, so I looked around the house for something a little thicker that could provide some friction, but not seep out easily like a liquid. I found TheraPutty - basically silly putty but made for physical therapy. When TheraPutty is left alone for a few min it forms to the shape of the container, it doesn't seem to get hard or dry out, and it doesn't seem to ever get liquid enough to seep out of the cracks. Wikipedia says silly putty is "a viscoelastic liquid silicone, a type of non-Newtonian fluid, which makes it act as a viscous liquid over a long time period but as an elastic solid over a short time period" - I figured it's thicker than the vaseline-like substance that was in there, so I didn't fill either cartridge fully, I put it all back together and voila! It opens and closes slower than it did before, but I figure that will loosen up over time. And no more slamming! We shall see how long it lasts, but wanted to say thank you for all the info, and maybe the silly putty trick will work for someone else - until Toto makes new cartridges available in the US!

As @Brendoni mentioned - I do see TCH918R and similar cartridges being sold in Japan, so Toto could choose to sell these.

Photos of various parts here: https://imgur.com/a/FxsHq47

 

[Coxwain]

I thought I would add some more pictures to the thread. It would be nice to be able to buy the cartridge or figure out how to recharge it but I suspect the washers are bad too
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipM-mePScIM4XWOY4WP0pO7iFgojRmZsoaM5Qn9E
https://photos.app.goo.gl/J5bxVjbybSuKETaGA
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipM-mePScIM4XWOY4WP0pO7iFgojRmZsoaM5Qn9E

I have called TotoUSA they wont sell the part and I cant find it anywhere.
Markings are 85B21 or S5B21
No luck

 

[bestoperator1]

Well .......... I'm like a dog with a bone when I'm trying to fix something and after 5 attempts at different type of fluids I absolutely found the correct one. Go down to your local hobby store and get 500,000 wt differential fluid for RC cars. Like in a earlier post they have different wt oils but I figured I would try the thickest wt first. A small tube cost 12 bucks and there's enough to do at least 5 complete assy's for someone who has more than 1 of these toilet seats. Upon opening the tube I realized this was EXACTLY the same stuff that came out of the hinge upon initial disassembly. After 6 tries total I pretty much has this tear down to a science. I cleaned everything up and assembled the spool into the housing and rotated it all the way to the stops ensuring the rubber wiper ring on top of the spool was lined up on top perfectly. Now this stuff is super thick so now with patience you can take the tube and squeeze out the clear grease into both channels to the top. Set it aside and do the same with the other one. When you get back to first one you will notice that it very slowly starts pouring down into the barrel channel and after doing this process a few maybe 3 times you'll slowly start seeing a few air bubbles coming thru the goo to the top. You'll have to pop these with a pin Once it's full wipe the little excess off and reassemble the cylinders and put a shaft thru the middle and using a pair of pliers holding the cylinder in your hand, rotate the inner mechanism to realign with the toilet seat and cover. Throw it back on the toilet. It literally works like I took it outta the box brand new.
I know they have different wt oils but the 500k seems perfect. Obviously, the lest viscousity the quicker the seat and lid will fall. Opening the seat, It's resistance was what I remembered. Good luck. Now the 80 bucks I saved from not buying a new seat will pay for a nice steak a few cold ones. Absolutely worth my time Ruff Ruff

 

[lelt]

hey all, signed up esp for this thread. What an amazing resource. Thanks everyone for chiming in.

I am working on a delta softclose seat with a busted damper (for top cover). I managed to repair it and filled it with quakehold. That didn't work. Then diff lube 500k and still doesn't work. Seals seem ok. Maybe the lube wt is not high enough? Should I drain that out and try 1M fluid? Or just get a new seat call it a day? Advice/thoughts/comments welcome. Thanks.