thanks fella never ever thought of giving these things any sort of treatment to prolong their life...my mistake.....in the meantime I am gonna see if i can get away with coating them with some kind of sealent if i can find some....read that 3M window weld works....and shoe goo! but ideally they need swapping out

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E53 X5 3.0d SUV prod.date 11/2004 eng.variant M57N Europe Right hand drive N