Our 1999 Eurovan Camper’s original sink faucet started leaking around the handle. Maybe we could have fixed it, but I really liked the look of a replacement faucet I saw done on Facebook, so I bought that and asked my handy-man dad to help me install it.

The faucet I bought from the Facebook recommendation was titled “Bazpo 12V Water Tap with Microswitch | RV Kitchen Faucet Solid Brass (5 BAR) | 12 Volt Electric Tap with Switch | Boat, Camping Sink Faucet Rotatable | RV Accessory (White)” but it’s not longer on Amazon or I’d share the link. You can try searching that information, it might still be on a faucet site or Ebay. If you find something similar, just make sure the faucet turns off when the handle is down, or you might not be able to close the van’s countertop lid.

Here are the tools we used:

  • Screwdrivers
  • Round file
  • Wirecutters
  • Cord stripper
  • Electrical tape
  • Cleaner, paper towels
  • Wrench
  • Lantern to light the cabinet

Here are the steps we took:

1. Remove the cabinet door, shelves and backboard.

Removing the cabinet door is to make everything easier to access, since for ours it doesn’t open all the way but hits the rear seat. To remove the cabinet door, look at the hinges on the inside of the door, there are two screws on each – unscrew the screw on the left until it’s loose enough to move the door to the side until the screw slides out the hole and the door comes off.

Removing the backboard of the cabinet helps you access the wiring, but I wonder if you have to do this at all. For us the wires were really long, so if you can pull the wires out through the crack at the top until you get to the crimps (and think you can get the new crimped wires back in behind the backboard) then I’d skip this step and only do it if you absolutely to have to – or if you also want to take this opportunity to vacuum and clean up back there. We took it off for better access and because we switched from crimps to wire nuts which are bulky.

That said, if you do remove the backboard, you may want to do step #2 first, as it might come out easier once the hose is detached and mobile.

This is the backboard I’m talking about – it’s actually two pieces.

2. Loosen the silver clamp on the water hose where it attaches to the faucet under the counter; then remove the hose from the blue plastic faucet piece. You will have to wiggle is a lot and hard. Once it’s off, I retightened the clamp on the hose so as not to lose it.

This is before everything was detached, but you can see the silver clamp, the beige water hose, and the blue plastic piece from the faucet.

This is what it looked like after the backboard was taken off, the hose was removed, and we pulled the wires out.

3. Cut the wires at the connection. We were switching to wire nuts instead of crimps so we cut all the wires next to the crimps.

4. Remove the faucet by unscrewing the nut under the counter and pulling it out.

All the detached pieces, before the purple wire crimps were cut off all the way.

5. File a bigger faucet hole, if needed.

The faucet we used was the slightest bit too big for the hole, so we filed the hole a bit bigger.

6. Clean. 

Clean the counter from faucet residue, vacuum the filed bits from the cabinet floor, vacuum and wipe down the area behind the cabinet.

7. If using wire nuts, prep the wires of the new faucet. 

It’s easier to do this before installing the new faucet. Strip the wires a bit. Do this to the purple/pump wires too.

We did not turn the power off because it didn’t seem necessary (and I couldn’t figure out how). Be careful not to let them touch each other or they may spark.

8. Screw in the new faucet.

Make sure it gets nice and tight with a wrench. I angled ours almost parallel to the side of the sink, so the faucet would reach further over the sink. At this point I realized it would have been better to buy the faucet with the handle on the other side, but maybe it reaches more into the middle of the sink this way. We will find out.

9. Attach the wires using a wire nut.

I’m sure you can YouTube this if you need to.

Here are the new wires, nutted together and taped together (step 12).

Now everything looks like this:

10. Attach the hose to the new faucet.

Push the beige hose over the new faucet until it covers all the ridges. Then tighten the clamp over both.

(You could do 9 & 10 in any order).

11. Test the water.

Make sure it turns on! If anything is wrong, go back and fix the wires.

12. Tape the wires to each other to reduce stress on the wire nut, and tape the wires to the tubes on the wall to keep them out of the way.

13. Replace the backboard (with the wires going over the top), shelves, and door.

Here is the result!

The new faucet – higher clearance and nicer looking!

To close the countertop lid, the faucet must be down.

So there you go!