A buddy of mine from work has a '97 Boxster he got while stationed in Germany. He noticed rust on the wheels the other day; it is coming from the lug nuts. He asked our local Porsche dealer about it and they said that the lug nuts have a special coating and that if you use normal soap for washing your car (instead of P-car super soap) the coating will come off and the lug nuts will rust. Sounds like BS to me but my p-cars have had alloy lug nuts so there wasn't any rusting. Any truth to this? If so, is there a suggested aftermarket source for some non-rusting lug nuts for his Boxster (maybe even an RL sponsor)? Sorry if this is ancient history, I did a few searches through the Boxster archives and didn't find anything.

 

Stationed, eh? Please tell him THANK YOU for his service!!

Sounds like the P-car dealer wants to sell him $200 car wash to me. The Boxster doesn't have lug "nuts" it has bolts that go into the hub (unless they changed that after '97 and I don't know it). There's no way to keep any "coating" on the bolts since the threads are scrubbed every time they go in and out. Mine have a little bit of rust on the bolt part, but not actually coming from the heads. We use regular car wash soap (Blue Coral) and no problems.

His probably just show more because they are older or in a more humid or salty climate. Alot of it may be coming from the rotors too since they usually rust a good bit after awhile. I don't see a problem as long as it's not changing the shape or size of the bolts.

 

Thanks for the response and the recognition. I'll give him your thanks!
I'll convey the skepticism and maybe look for a new set of bolts at Hershey.

 

I just blast them with compressed air and paint them krylon silver with a funnel ( a new car dealer license plate insert works perfect) shapped to slip over the lug bole head, (hard to imagine but try) they look great when done and dont re rust, the new lugs will rust in a few months in salty air AND if your car is still under warranty, Porsche WILL replace them if you ask nicely

 

Sounds like an even less expensive way to go - Thanks!