Rust Never Sleeps
 

I bought what I thought was a high end stem and bars (both 3T) and went to adjust them today and the bolts are rusting where the hex head key fits. You would think that after spending that kind of money they would supply you with SS hardware or at least a good quality chrome plated hardware. What's with that?

put a dap of grease inside the bolt's head ,and grease the treads of the bolt(s) too .

Spend a buck or so and get the proper size stainless bolts. Grease the threads and torque them properly and you are good to go.

I don't know which 3T stem you got, but the last couple ARX Team stems I've used had what looked like blue thread locker on the bar clamp threads. Caused a broken bolt before I realized what was going on. I replaced all 4 blots with SS equivalents, and haven't had a problem since. Oh, and +1 on the grease

SS hardware would help, but as any boat owner can tell you, even Stainless Steel can develop isolated rust spots. This is partly because of transfer from the tooling during manufacture. Cap screws are especially vulnerable because it's not possible to effectively plate inside corners, and the hex key will break plating away anyway. Also water tends to accumulate in the recesses worsening the situation. As much as we like to pan WD-40, this is a perfect application. Spray the hardware with it or a similar produce once a year and worry about what matters.

I keep 2 fairly low end bikes in Cozumel where the best local weather is harsher of metal than a rough winter in Chicago. Chain has my stuff on it, and the rest of the bare metal is sprayed with a rust inhibitor every year or so. So far, after 5+ years, only a few spots of minor cosmetic rust.

I live in a coastal area with corrosive salt air. In addition to the above suggestions, I have also obtained some rubber inserts/plugs and put them in to the more cosmetic bolt heads such as the long stem bolt. When it fell out I got another an put a little dap of glue. They look nice and prevent corrosion.

I put 3-in-1 oil in the bolt heads on a fairly cheap threadless MTB stem when they started rusting, which seemed to stop them getting any worse.

Kudos to you for the Neil Young reference in the title, by the way.