Blog · research notes
What we learn while building the configurators: changeovers, part families, the traps. Every article names its sources and how sure we are.
The E46 Compact shares its name, not its nose: own headlights, own bumper covers front and rear, no facelift split. What that means when you buy parts.
Basic or sport, manual or electric: four front seats for the E46 Sedan and Touring, plus ALPINA. What a used listing tells you, and what it leaves out.
The buttons on an E46 steering wheel only work if the car is wired for them. What BMW's retrofit kit adds, which cars it was written for, and what to buy.
Style 44, 45, 68M, 71, 119 and 135M: spoke pattern, size, square or staggered, and what BMW's European catalogue lists each for. For used-set buyers.
A general guide to buying genuine BMW E46 parts in Europe: what a listing must show, why a headlight needs both sides, new versus used, VAT and shipping.
Every US-market E46 headlight has a different catalogue number from its European twin, and some units exist in one market only. What an imported car needs.
BMW renumbered most E46 headlights up to three times. What a seller's old number means, which old numbers still fit, and the one chain step that never does.
BMW's catalogue picks an E46 bumper cover by body style, production date and package, never by engine. What sensors, tow hitches and washers really change.
An E46 steering wheel is the driver airbag. What decides fit: airbag generation, wiring for buttons and paddles, wheel family. From BMW's own documents.
For four E46 bodies BMW's catalogue lists seats as frames, rails and covers, never as one part; only the Convertible and M3 differ. What a sport seat really is.
BMW's first car factory stood in Thuringia. After 1945 it built BMWs for the East under another name, then Wartburgs. In 1992 BMW came back. A Unity Day story.
Adaptive E46 bi-xenon units share their electronics with the beam levelling. Fit the wrong pair and the lamp lights but the levelling stops. How to check.
The E46 Compact had its own headlights, shared with no other E46, unchanged in production and never sold in the US. Two families: halogen and bi-xenon.
BMW splits E46 headlights by body and two dates: 09/2001 (Sedan, Touring) and 03/2003 (Coupé, Convertible). The owner's table, and why 2001 is the hard case.
Forum names like M-Tech, M-Tech 2 and xenons are not in BMW's parts catalogue. A glossary of what BMW actually calls E46 bumpers, steering wheels and lights.
Try it on your car
Pick your model, year and body style in the configurator and get the part that fits it, with the OEM number and offers side by side.
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