I bought my clears used from the UK about a year ago. UK acid rain eats into the sealant that BMW uses on the trunk lights - see my signature, you'll see the difference between trunk and sides... All UK E46s have that issue.
The weather's been hovering around -15F lately, and my car was disgusting and needed a wash. I went to the touchless today, and upon pulling into the driveway at home, I saw this:
I freaked out because these are $60 a piece, and pretty rare in the US. I checked the other side and it was half off and ready to give out any day. I pulled it out and saved it, and proceeded to drive back to the carwash to see where I might have lost it. It wasn't on any of the streets I had taken, so I figured it was in the bay. Problem is, the manager was gone and had locked the keys in his office!
The attendant ended up giving me a free wash, and told me to drive further when the machine said STOP - it wouldn't start until I backed up to the proper positioning. So here I was, in a carwash, running around looking for my lights. I found the parts and proceeded to wash the car. Then, when I was in the drying cycle, my mirror covers went flying!!! I had to get out of the car with huge fans blowing air everywhere. What a mess.
But it wasn't done. As I removed the old assemblies, there was ice and soap everywhere, the bulbs were frozen in the sockets, all this in -15F weather remember. I ended up reinstalling my amber trunk lights as a temporary fix.
I'm now left with this to fix:
And this:
Moral of the story... Don't wash your car when it's -15F or your lights will fly everywhere.
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