The flush on the toilet is broken, we've figured out it's probably the syphon diaphragm and I've read on internet that to replace it we'd have to remove the whole cistern. Only thing is our cistern is attached to the wall, not with the normal two screws, but with a whole load of silicone (previous house owner was a bit trigger happy with the silicone gun). Are we going to end up wrecking all the tiles if we attempt to remove it???

Jenny Kirkwood, July 2009

no you don't need to remove old system from wall just disconnect down pipe from system to pan and unscrew the large nut to remove syphon , if its close coupled you will need to separate the system from bowl .

bill, July 2009

Take a piece of nylon cord about 1 metre long(kite string is ideal)and tie a few single knots along its length, attach something to both of the ends so the cord does not cut into your fingers. it should resemble the wire cheese cutter that is used in the supermarkets. Wrap this over the cysten and pull this "cheesecutter back and forth useing the knots to cut through the silicone, if the string breaks make another. should only take a couple of minutes to do. It shouldn't break the cystern or the tiles

Mick, July 2009

is it a close coupled wc ?
not all syphons need to be taken out to repair the diaphragm thomas dudley syphon come apart in the middle.

if the cistern needs to be removed then it will come off just be carefull in your approach the way you do it.

hi-spec plumbing & heating (essex), July 2009