I've bought two sets and both have rust on them? How can I prevent this.

 

Buy stainless steel lug nuts. Your chrome lug nuts, without a warranty, mean that they are not an expensive chrome plating process. if they are rusting, the chrome has already worn off. Some good quality lug nuts use steel as the base material and are covered with a Stainless steel outer shell.

 

Unfortunately chrome lug nuts will rust eventually, however if you use a standard socket on them you will break the chrome on the edges of the lugnut and then they will rust very quickly. While chrome is one of the hardest materials out there, it is also quite brittle. A standard socket (especially a 12 point one) grabs the corners of a nut and this is how the chrome gets broken.
You do have a couple of options...
You can get a special lugnut socket with a nylon insert that will protect the chrome much better. These are available from many of the Forum vendors and are not terribly expensive.
Or you can purchase a Snap-on socket that fits your lugnut and use it with any less expensive 1/2" driver. Snap-on uses a flank drive which doesn't allow the socket to touch the corners of a nut, only the flats and you should have no more problems with rust on your lugnuts. I have only used flank-drive sockets for years and the only time I have ever damaged the chrome on a lugnut was when I used an impact gun in an emergency.
By the way Kobalt also uses flank-drive on their sockets (they're a subsidiary of Snap-on and cost no more than Craftsman). I have also never rounded the corners on a bolt or nut... I have broken a few rusty bolts however...!!
Check out this image, if a socket doesn’t have the fillets cut in it, it isn’t flank-drive, I don’t care what it says. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog

Evil-Twin... do you know anyone that makes SS lugnuts? McGard was going to many years ago but ran into some problems with then and I have never seen them on the market. I know there are some lugnuts that use a SS cover over the nut, is this what you're referring to?

GUSTO

 

Same problem here

 

Chrome is just a coating over metal. If it cracks and water gets in they will rust. Just get polished stainless steel, like the exhaust tips

 

Who would know better than RstyNutz!

 

I bought my GORILLAs with the locking lug for about $40 and have had them on for the last two years and removed my wheels several times and have lived in Hawaii with them on and NO RUST here!

 

IT is actually galvanic corrosion .
When two dissimilar metals (electromotive series)are touching, it sets up a small electric current. One of the metals acts as the cathode and one as the anode. The anode is the one that corrodes. Chrome plating is great until there is a crack in the coating. The Chrome creates a large cathodic surface that sends current to the crack in the plating and concentrates it on the small exposed underlying steel ( anode).....
The result is corrosion (AKA rust)