Can worn seats/springs allow water to leak out the back of a tub/shower handle mechanism?

[gwa000]

i have a delta series 600 bathtub faucet (attached) which is dripping. i know that the cause is worn out seats/springs.
faucet is around 30 years old and seats/springs have never been replaced. tub/shower is used intermittently for guests/grandkids.

the faucet mechanism also uses a o-ring (RP1076) according to the parts description. is this o-ring in the area where the seats/springs are?

if so, if this o-ring is bad can water leak out not just the tub faucet but also back along the copper supply mechanism and supply lines?
i also see what looks like some calcification in the gap between the sleeve ((RP5893) and escutcheon (RP5883).

reason i ask is because i have an intermittent drip that appears on my soil stack pipe (above laundry room ceiling) where it takes a 90 degree turn.
as far as i can tell there are no waste lines that go into the soil stack here, otherwise i would see them.

this has been going on for years (yeah, i know i'm a procrastinator!!) but when it starts it is in the fall and by april it stops although it could start/stop in between which i think may be related to the tub/shower. my guess is that when it stops in april is because the weather is warm and any slow drip may just be evaporating. and when it is intermittent in the colder months may be just the way the handle was shut off.

so... can worn out seats/springs and a bad o-ring allow water to leak out back along the copper supply mechanism and supply lines?

thanks!

 

[WorthFlorida]

Leaks can be from anywhere but it wouldn’t be seasonal. I'm first suspecting its condensation from the roof vent or if its on an exterior wall cavity. look for shut offs valves for the tub and turn off the water. Open the tub valve to relieve pressure and wait and see. Is the pipe cast iron?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[gwa000]

Leaks can be from anywhere but it wouldn’t be seasonal. I'm first suspecting its condensation from the roof vent or if its on an exterior wall cavity. look for shut offs valves for the tub and turn off the water. Open the tub valve to relieve pressure and wait and see. Is the pipe cast iron?

i shut off the main water supply and turned the tub faucet to relieve pressure. an hour later it was still dripping. mind you this is not a fast drip, maybe one drip every 90 seconds, although over time it accumulates!! you can barely see the thin sliver of water feeding into the drip. so it appears that it is not any plumbing.

the soil stack is PVC, house has ridge vents in the attic, bathroom fans are vented through an exterior wall so no venting of condensation into the attic.

years ago i entertained that it could be condensation related but dismissed it because of the following:

mind you that this has been going on for several years and at times it could stop for days or weeks and then continue for days or weeks. but as i noted it always seems to start in the fall and end around april.

but here is the weird part. it started back up dripping (which in a 24 hour period could be normally range from 10 - 200 ml (discounting outliers) on 10/2/2019 for a few days, stopped for 3 weeks, started back up for 5 weeks. at that point we were going on vacation so i shut the water off. when we came back it stopped dripping and did not start back up until 11/8/2022!!

so that is why i though maybe some plumbing was leaking (i.e. pinhole) and had calcified with the water being shut off. i can't figure out why i could go for close to 3 years before it starting up again since nothing has really changed in our house.

if it is condensation i'm guessing it would all depend on the temperature and relative humidity but i have never been able to come up with any sort of correlation.

not sure what you mean by "condensation from the roof vent" since the the soil stack pipe just exits through the roof with flashing and a rubber boot to prevent water coming down.

if it is condensation would i (really the guy i hire) see it on the soil stack pipe in the attic (mind you what i see near the drip is a thin sliver of water and only using a flashlight).

finally, assuming that it is condensing on the pipe or on the attic side of the flashing is the solution simply to put insulation around the soil stack pipe and/or on the attic roof where the pipe is?

thanks!