Last week, I unhooked the toilet in our summer home and dragged it outside. (If you ever unhook your toilet from sewage, stick a plastic bag into the drain, to block the stink.) - it was dripping near the intake hose, and the button mechanism didn’t work. Oh, and every now and then there was a mysterious puddle on the floor under it… Cleaned out the accumulated rust/mud/junk from its tank with a garden hose, dishwashing sponge and vinegar (not sure if the vinegar actually dissolved anything or not). Removed the tank, and removed all the old and deteriorating plumbing stuff from inside. Replaced the leaky gasket between tank and bowl (ha! found the reason for the occasional puddle around the toilet) and reassembled the tank. Installed a new flush valve (30€) and a new filling valve (15€) (tho on the second look, the intake valve was actually still serviceable). Replaced the gasket between intake hose and filling valve (1€ for a package of 10) and hooked up the whole mess.
Result:
The intake hose is not dripping into a bucket anymore.
I now have a button to press, when I want to flush, instead of manually lifting the whole flush valve :D
I saved the cost of a new toilet (that’s somewhere around 160€ for a cheap one, less 46€ for the replacement kit I bought)
The work took an hour or a couple. Shopping for a new toilet and installing it would also have taken an hour or a couple