Ok.
First, A bit of history.
A long time ago I worked as a maintenance fitter for a local chicken processing company. This involved getting called out during the night to fix a variety of problems that were stopping production. So I needed a reliable car. But it had to be cheap.
Initially I had the Citroen BX that I alluded to elsewhere, but it's Heisenberg braking system tried to kill me one night, so I felt it time for a swap.
Enter the BMW.
This car looked very good on the forecourt. No obvious rust. It drove well and , apart from a whine in bottom gear, seemed reasonable. I parted with £999 and drove it home. My daughters thought it the best thing since sliced bread and even my wife liked it.
Next morning it wouldn't start.
And this is where I made my big mistake. Any sensible person would have got the vendor to take it back and return the money, But as I was a mechanic, I fixed the fault (no power to the fuel pump) and kept it.
It ran ok for the first three month. Then I started getting problems with the engine not responding to the accelerator properly. It turned out to be a sticky Mass Air Flow valve. But by now I was getting fed up with the deteriorating reliability. So I bought another Citroen, This time a ZX Diesel, and we lived happily for years together. The BMW was put out to graze on the end of the drive closest to the shed and left to rust in peace. This turned out to be a move that had mixed blessings, as you will find out.
I recently looked at the old tax disk and it read 0602. So this 28 year old car had sat there for about 12 years. But then (in August 2014) I bought my latest toy, The Denford Viceroy. And that is the real start of the story.