On 25/05/2014 17:42, Brian Gaff wrote:
maybe its just limescale though, seems a bit odd that one cannot
even get in to clean it.

For a dripping bathroom tap, fed from the cold water tank, opening
and closing the tap fully a few times seems to clean the disc
enough to stop it dripping for a few months.

For a dripping kitchen sink tap, on mains pressure, I was able to
dismantle the cartridge and pack out the disc with plastic sheet
cut from a shopping bag [1]. (This provides a bit more pressure on
the sealing surfaces.)

Attempts to buy a new cartridge from the fancy plumbing showroom at
my local builders' merchants were thwarted by claims of "We don't
stock 'em, they never leak".

Again, this only kept it going for a few months before needing to
be repeated. Eventually the sink suffered an unrelated crack (not
me, guv!) and we bought a tap with traditional washers to go with
the new sink.

[1] An earlier tip from this group. Thank you.

--
Graham Nye
news(a)thenyes.org.uk