Plumbing – Why does the toilet still leak after replacing the wax ring

The wax ring should seat so that no waste material can get out from around the drain when the toilet is seated on it. When in place, it should look like this:

Now you may have purchased a wax ring that did not have the gasket built in, like such:

If so, and you get the sense that leaks are likely to happen, you should go ahead and clean that out and get the flanged kind.

Also, yes, when you apply pressure, it will smoosh out some, to create a seal, but the seal is intended to be between the floor and the toilet - it will not fill in gaps in the drain itself - that's the purpose of the flange.

Hope that helps!

That's a fairly popular fill valve. To open it:

1. Shutoff the water, you don't want a geyser.
2. Lift the float to the top position.
3. While holding up the float, push down on the top cap and twist the cap a quarter turn (I believe counter clockwise).

The cap will then lift off and you can inspect and clean any parts. Before reinstalling the cap, move any small parts to a safe location, get a small cup to place over the top of the valve, and turn on the water supply. This will jet water straight up from the top of the valve and clear out any debris.

Reinstalling the cap is the reverse of the above procedure. Put the parts back, position the cap back on top, lift the float, press down on the cap, and twist.

Note that if cleaning it doesn't work, it's fairly simple to replace this fill valve.