On 2009-07-30, hd wrote:

Can someone please help me understand. Obviously breaking the tile down
is going to take longer and be a more expensive matter as well.

There's a little O-ring in there, one for the hot line and one for the
cold line, and they just wear out over time. How difficult it is to get
to them depends on the design of your faucet.

All the ones that I
have replace (which were sink faucets) simply required removing a scew
from the knob, and the O-ring was right there.

Some of the faucets had a
cap on the face that needed to be popped off.

Of course, if you are going to try to do it yourself, remember to turn
the water main off first!