I recently picked up a set of clear sidemarkers from ECS Tuning – they’re on sale for $2.95 which is a deal too good to pass up.
Originally I had taken my sidemarkers off and painted them Light Silver Metallic to match the rest of my car. I liked the look, but unfortunately the paint matching wasn’t perfect – it was pretty close, but painting a plastic reflector to look like the rest of the car was pretty difficult. In some lighting it looked okay, and in other lighting it looked terrible – personally, I’m a perfectionist, and this bothered me more and more over time. When I saw a sale for $3 sidemarkers, I instantly seized the opportunity and purchased a set.
What I like about the clear sidemarkers is that they’re still reflective – I always worried that the paint matched ones, which aren’t reflective, could come back to bite me in the ass if I were ever in an accident and my car insurance decided that this modification made my car less safe and part of the reason why I was in an accident. The clear sidemarkers still acheive the same effect – better visibility to cars at night – yet still has the “euro” look during the day and isn’t an obnoxious and ugly amber color that the US version of our cars comes with.
Installation was a breeze – follow this helpful guide by my friend Martin on Audizine. It takes merely 15 minutes of time to snap out the old ones and pop in your new reflectors, and they completely transform the look of the car, making it look much cleaner and well presented.
Anyone in the market – be sure to take advantage of this sale while it’s still going on. As someone that has made several orders through ECS Tuning, I can tell you this company has great service and an unbeatable selection of parts for your Audi…be sure to check them out!
And one more pic, just because I think it came out cool:
Thanks for checking out my blog!
Nice looking ride! I’m into my first year and 40K miles of enjoying my MKV Jetta TDI, red with factory low profile rims and tires. Although I hope the Jetta lasts forever, I can’t wait to move up into the Audis.
Thanks! Enjoy your Jetta, they are great cars.
do those fit the s-line bumper?
Yep, they fit the S-line bumper and non-sline bumper just fine (I believe they are the same). I have them on my s-line bumper no issues.
Ran into problems with the install of a non s-line, wiper reservoir is preventing access to the clip of the driver side.
Any tips?
It’s definitely a pain to reach, the same problem occurs on the s-line. The bumper will flex outward a little bit, so keep trying to fit your hands back there. If not, get a pair of needlenose pliers to reach back there and push the clips together, that should work too. Otherwise you’ll have to just keep trying, or find a friend with small hands 🙂
umm, I purchased a set from ECS; the set were not perfect fit, and I have to modify in order to GLUE on the bottom piece. sigh, but still…ugly. what they send me have no clip to clip on the bottom piece, the shape is off, I gotta sand down some part of the slidemarker in order to fit on the hole, it is also thicker than the oem slidemarker. i am so piss now, they sell something else than what you see in their website. terrible.
Awesome blog, Nick!
I have an s-line b7 in Quartz Grey, which I think might be the same or very similar color to yours. I want to purchase the sidemarkers, but I was debating between the clear and the smoked ones. I’m afraid the clear ones might stick out as too white on my grey car. I see you got the clear ones, but pictures don’t tell the whole story, it’s different in motion, so I was wondering what your 2 cents are. I don’t particularly care for the smoked ones, I just want the ones that will blend in with the car’s color more closely.
Thanks, and keep up the good work.
That’s a tough call. Your car is definitely darker than mine. The clear looked excellent on my car, they blended in and it was like there wasn’t anything there, which was perfect. I’d say go for clear on yours as well, unless you plan on integrating black more into your car theme (e.g. black wheels, black grille, etc).
And also, they only seem to have the ones for the front bumpers. What about the rear bumper? Have you come across a matching replacement for those? Man, I miss my European b7, it didn’t have any of these stupid things in the first place
I color matched the rears myself, I just popped them out, sanded them, and then bought a can of color-matched spray paint. In hindsight I would have had a body shop do it though, it’s too hard to DIY the painting part, especially for a tough color like silver…
Thanks, I ordered the clear ones. Congrats on your S4, Can’t wait to see what you’ll do with this one.