My thoughts are that it's more of a design issue than anything.
To machine something perfectly flat is tough. So you design to allow for variations - something which the Bimmian side markers don't have. It's a hard piece of flat plastic with no "give". The OEM ones are the same except it has a rubber seal that is flexible which allows for variations to ensure a watertight seal - this allows for some variations in both the body of the car and also the part itself. There is no way the Bimmian ones are watertight since it's nearly impossible to ensure that it's water tight if there's no flexible seal.
Here's another thread:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...bimmian&page=2
Quote:
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On the other hand, the bimmian led side marker really have fitments issue on E92 and also is not weather proof as the oem one! I end up spent 2 hr to sand it down and made my own weather proof strip in order to fit the suckers on my car!
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So it looks like it might not be an LCI issue unless a bunch of other LCI's are having the same problem.
I can't conclude that it's a bad set of Bimmian lights since the gap is about the same size on both sides and in the same placement. It could be an LCI issue or just a variation in the body part of my car. Or it could be that most people have a gap but just don't see it or don't care. The gap could be on the bottom which would go unnoticed.
Hopefully my workaround will work because I'm just not comfortable with salt and water getting in through that opening.