So...what didnt even occur to me before makes perfecet sense now. The front top hats should be able to spin freely while completely bolted down on to the strut assembly. I'm guessing its an issue of my struts not being greased properly to begin with. Let me draw a digram of the strut assembly. {| = top hat <| = tapered washer (| = spring perch /\/\/ = spring It should look like this: {| <| (| /\/\/ |====+ I hope this makes sense. The reason why my top hats are torn is because there was no way they were spinning freely period. Its depressing, but its true. I wish I would have known this earlier. It makes sense though, considering you have to steer your car and turn it one way or another, the strut needs to be able to not move when the control arms turn in/out. The only way to do this, is to allow the top hat to spin freely, compensating for this rotation. Make sense? I've solved it! I am still waiting to hear if I can pull off a warranty issue with the top hats. I am saying now that they werent prop. lubricated. Hope this sheds light for everyone. Please let me know if you have questions. Disgruntled yet pleased to know why, Alex
But at least it's solved. So now other spring installers will know to check that their front hats spin freely before reinstalling them.
The top hats have a bearing inside them that should turn freely. The purpose of the tapered washer is to put all the weight on that bearing, with no contact to the rubber mount. Sounds like possibly the washers were installed upside down? Or something really is defective? No additional grease should be necessary, the bearing itself has grease inside.