thanks Torque. I'm at work now and will post you the VIN from home, but im pretty sure it's either dec.88 or jan.89, most definitely pre Feb.

Just by the way, i've noticed something on a photo of another E34 i've never seen on my cluster, its on the right of the "main display" at the bottom of the cluster. On the left is a little display showing milage, now - whats on the right? The photo showed E 2 message or something. I've never had that.