Is there any problem with leaving steel nuts on a street/track car all the time? Rust issues? Or is it best to take the steel nuts off after track time?

 

If they salt your roads in the winter than you would probably get some rust both on the nuts and the studs. Steel nuts aren't closed on the end like aluminum nuts are, so the studs are exposed too. You'd be fine in the warm months, but you might want to switch back to aluminum if you drive it in the winter.

 

ive had steel nuts on my 924s for about two years (no winters) and there is a touch of rust on them but nothing too bothersome.

 

Ran steel on my previous Pcars that, well, didn't see much snow/salt/rain.. so I left them on year round.

 

So where is the best place to get steel lugs?

 

I got mine at Pelican. I am sure there are other vendors though.

 

Mine have been on the car since 2002 at least. I don't even know where my aluminum ones are any more.

 

We can't all be Superman.

 

Hold on, aren't the treads in aluminum nuts made out of steel, I thought that portion of the nut was made of steel and the rest of aluminum, just asking.

 

Nope. Aluminum nuts are 100% aluminum. No inserts in the nuts at all.

 

Damn, I always thought they did. Thanks

 

PCA club racing requires steel lug nuts so the scrutineers can see how far the lug nuts engage. Many aftermarket wheels are thicker than Porsche wheels, so you have to change the studs for them to have sufficient length.

If alloy lug nuts were somehow inferior Porsche and other highly reputable vendors wouldn't use them. It is all a matter of unsprung weight.

I competed in well over 150 autocrosses with a 944 equipped with alloy lug nuts and never had a problem other than forgetting to tighten them.

 

Additionally, the aluminum nuts fatigue far quicker than steel.

After all those torque cycles the aluminum nuts visibly twist torsionally. Some of them a good 5 degrees or some. It is clear when you look at them head-on.

The thing you have to be careful about with steel is (in the likely case you're using wheels with aluminum seats) not driving them on with an impact at high torque setting.

 

I'd love to see some actual proof of that other than in cases where someone grossly over-tightened them hundreds of times. It is extremely important to use a torque wrench instead of an impact wrench other than a handful of times when you buy new tires. Even then, it shouldn't really be done. But many tire vendors don't even have a torque wrench, much less know the proper torque setting.

Again, if there was any actual issues with alloy lug nuts that have sufficient room to engage the studs Porsche simply wouldn't use them.

 

My car had aluminum lugs when I bought it. First thing I did was replace them with steel lugs.

There's no real advantages to using aluminum, and a whole bunch of potential negatives as noted above.