I need to replace the top hats on my 2010 se, so I'm trying to figure exactly what is needed. Is it only necessary to get the top hat (4140A505), or the rest of the little parts as well? Like the collar (MR554373), top nut (MS440002) , top nut bushing (MR594612), etc....

 

If you have noise its likely just the hat.

But you wont find out exactly what is needed untill you remove the strut and spring and inspect all components.

If your in doubt just replace it all the 1st time.

 

It's not always just the top hats though, in my case I replaced the hats and the noise was still present until I replaced the entire strut. Just food for thought. I just replaced the hat at the time, the nut and nut bushing etc I reused.

 

I'm hoping it's just the mount, I'll start there. Are the KYB and Bilstein strut mounts interchangeable? I hit the local performance parts shop, and they're trying to get me the KYB top hats. They're like $30 cheaper each, but I can't find anything about them being interchangeable.

 

The KYB and Bilstein struts use the same top hat. You should be fine with reusing the same mounting hardware, are you replacing the top hat because its worn out? How many miles do you have?

 

Yeah, the bearings are out and there are cracks on top. I took it to hg motorsports in San Diego, and their evo tech confirmed they're done. I'm at 82,000 miles. The problem has been there since I got it at 38,000 miles. It only happened on hot days, and was barely audible. I missed it because it was still winter when I bought it, so it was a few months until warm weather. Now it's consistent after 20 miles of driving regardless of temp.

Are the kyb and bilstein top hats identical, or is there a quality difference. If they're identical, saving the money works for me. If the bilsteins happen to be better, $50ish isn't really a big deal.

 

I just got the kyb mounts in, and the bolt pattern seems to be correct. The only thing I'm wondering about is that they don't have any dust covers, which I imagine are important. Also, the bearing is just a round piece of grey plastic. It looks more like a spacer. The oem top hats have an actual bearing don't they?