Cayman - rusty wheel nuts

[pikey]

On polishing my 15 month old Cayman I noticed the wheel nuts are starting to rust.

Doing a search on here I note that a few people have had these, but on older cars.

Is this just one of those things and I'm being fussy or should I speak to the OPC and get some new ones (under warranty)?

Well actually I'm going to ask anyway, but I still wondered what general consensus is!

Ben

[CatherineJ]

Our 06 Boxster, registered May, had this problem by late summer and I remember asking the opc about it and was told that all Porsche wheel nuts do this.

[Vr6-er]

In a recent edition of Porche and 911 world their were a set of stainless bolts mentioned.

There are a load of options on this link

http://www.type-911.co.uk/ac_wheel.htm

[imfinlay]

CatherineJ said:

Our 06 Boxster, registered May, had this problem by late summer and I remember asking the opc about it and was told that all Porsche wheel nuts do this.

Feel free to send him a picture of the wheel nuts on my 18 year old 928 which haven't rusted at all.

[Scockers]

its a very common problem. The OPC will paint the wheel bolts on the cars on their forecourt. I use some silver hammerite paint & touch them in when needed.

[pikey]

But on a year old car?

Can't be right, surely? Not fit for purpose...

[andyuk911]

pikey said:

But on a year old car?

Can't be right, surely? Not fit for purpose...

Maybe, but it is a common fault

[pikey]

Common or not, I haven't even removed the wheels since Porsche put them on.

[pete.g]

The Cayman S demo car I was loaned to try out before I specced mine had rusty wheel nuts AND rusty hubs - it was 4 months old.

I said to the salesman about this and he blamed the wheel cleaning fluid the cleaners used and the fact it had been driven on salted roads (reg in Nov 05) and followed it up with 'They will rust in any case.'

When I got my car I removed the wheels and waxed the hubs with wheel wax. I replaced all my wheel bolts with a set of stainless ones from DesignTek - including locking bolts. This cost over £200.

My only worry is the warranty - as these are non-standard items. I've kept the originals greased and wrapped and will swap them over when the car is going for service and when it's for sale.

On a near £50k car it seems like a lot of bother for the owner - why aren't stainless or anodised OEM?

[exboxster]

The same happened on my Boxster- they listed it on the service notes, so I asked them to make a warranty claim. Job done- replaced with a different set that never caused a problem.
The "they all do that" is not acceptable

[randlemarcus]

exboxster said:

The same happened on my Boxster- they listed it on the service notes, so I asked them to make a warranty claim. Job done- replaced with a different set that never caused a problem.
The "they all do that" is not acceptable

Quite right.
I'd kick off gently, perhaps pointing out words like cost engineering. The nuts on the 944 T were ridiculously light alloy, to the point where they felt like plastic. And oddly enough never rusted.
Maybe if they state that they all do that, they might like to swap yours for another new set, and you can test the validity of that claim in an empirical manner?