Grohe Bathroom Faucet - How to remove cartridge??

[chitowngreeny]

I have a Grohe Classic Chrome 21 175 bathroom faucet with a fairly heavy stream of leaking water (when the valve is open...i've had it closed until I get it fixed)...after finally getting the faucet handle off (pulling really hard), I now can't seem to get the cartridge out...see picture below. I tried using an adjustable wrench, and it will not budge. If I put any more force on the wrench the decorative housing is going to snap!



I know i need to replace the cartridge with a 45 883 (or generic equivalent) which looks like this...



...but it seems that the existing cartridge is firmly attached to the housing...any thoughts??

[Terry]

It just unthreads.

[hj]

It unscrews the "normal" way. IF the housing breaks which is not likely, then there was no way to get it out anyway.