About three years ago I did the “restore your cloudy E46 headlights” thing… and surprise: they look like crap again. That’s the problem with sanding/polishing plastic lenses—after a couple years they oxidize and fade right back out. You can try clear coat after a restoration (I’ve heard it helps), but I can’t personally vouch for that yet. What I can vouch for is the permanent fix: replace the plastic headlight lenses/bezels and the gasket. In this video I pull the front bumper (which is honestly easy on an E46), pop the headlights out, and show you how the lenses clip on with a foam gasket—no heat gun, no butyl glue mess like the E90. I go over the snaps, how to be gentle because the plastic is old and brittle, and why it’s worth replacing the gasket while you’re in there. I also swap a weak xenon bulb and end up diagnosing a brightness mismatch that points to a likely bad xenon driver (that little metal box on the bottom). Bottom line: if you’ve got an E46, I’d skip “restoration” and just replace the lenses—way better results and it’s a piece of cake.