Please help me secure my toilet seat.

[veramax]

I apologize for not having time to do thorough search on this site.

I have a Champion Max 4 toilet from American Standard, with the Champion self-close seat. The plastic seat bolts never stayed secure, and after falling apart numerous times, I decided to make a custom bushing out of heavy duty duct tape to surround the plastic bolt and fill-in the extra space in the porcelain holes. It worked beautifully for the first few years. The bolts remained firmly in the porcelain holes, keeping the hardware secure.

I like to fully remove the seat to clean the toilet. My custom-made duct tape bushings are not going to last forever, and the adhesive is starting to turn gluey. I was thinking about an upgrade.

Does anyone know where I could find a rubber bushing piece to use in this application? I would want the plastic bolt to either slide into the bushing cleanly, or screw into the center with the thread catching some of the rubber material. And then I would need the rubber bushing to fill most of the porcelain hole. I could always add duct tape to the bushing to make the fit tighter, keeping the adhesive away from the screw thread.

Is bushing the correct term to ask for? Where would I find such a product? Can anyone approximate the measurements I would need? Interior diameter of the bushing and exterior diameter, approximately.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for creating a tight fit that's easy to take apart when cleaning?

Thank you.

 

[veramax]

The bolts on the left are the ones I have.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

Try "Rubber Cone Washer"

 

[Jadnashua]

This is what Toto uses for some of its toilets. Put some silicon plumber's grease on the threads to help ensure things come apart down the road.
https://www.amazon.com/Toto-THU651N...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B001F9WJTK

 

[veramax]

Thank you, Jim. I did see those in the research, and I'm not exactly sure how they work. I assume when you tighten the screw, the rubber anchor compresses to fill in the extra space. That's not exactly the solution I'm looking for, although it might work for many folks.

First, I like the 3/8" width of the plastic bolts I currently have, because they fill most of the hole in the porcelain base. I hate that the bolts are plastic, but they seem heavy duty enough. I don't want to switch to thinner bolts, even if they are metal.

I'm looking for a rubber bushing sleeve, perhaps one that I can cut down to size with an X-Acto knife. I would like the rubber bushing to match the depth of the porcelain, which will keep the bolts as perpendicular and sturdy as possible.

I did a little more research and found these from Ginsey:


It's not exactly perfect for what I want, but I think I could adapt them. I can shave down the lip edges and slope them for a better, more snug fit in the holes. They may not fill the entire porcelain hole, but I won't know until I experiment with them. At any rate, I ordered them from Ginsey. We'll see.

Thank you for the feedback. According to YouTube, this is a very common problem. I'm surprised there aren't more superb solutions.