[J88AAF]

Thought I'd start a thread for Marge the Barge to track any changes I decide to make to her over the course of ownership.

I've always owned Hondas and love their free-revving engines, here's a couple of pics of the more notable ones...

My stripped-out, Integra-engined EG civic project:








My OEM+ Integra DC5:





but I made the decision last year that the amount of time I spent working away meant I had no need to keep a DC5 locked up in the garage.


When I am home I like to spend most of my time getting out trail riding so I decided an estate was in order, and after a few months of searching and deliberating on different cars and models I settled on an E91 320d as being the right car.

It took me a few months to find a nice, low mileage car but I eventually did in March and so far the ownership has been faultless. I do miss having revs to play with when driving but at the end of the day this is something more practical than my previous cars so it can be forgiven. So far its done 3 Cornwall trips, a Scotland trip and numerous other journeys to trail centres and national parks for me to get out riding, so its definitely doing its job.

Anyway, here's a few pics of the car as she was bought back in March...









Spec is:

E91 320d M Sport
Bluewater
Black Dakota leather
18'' BMW MV3 193M
Bluetooth
Sun protection glass
Rear PDC.
Extended Interior Light Package
Extended Storage Package

Only changes I have made so far is to get a Thule Wingbar Roof Rack with two Thule bike carriers for carrying the bikes to wherever I am riding.

Before joining the forum I already had my plans in mind, but it seems they are almost the same as every other E91 owners plans too;

335 style exhaust
CSL 19s (Reps as the pockets don't go deep enough for genuines!)
Performance Kidney Grills
Bulb upgrades
Re-map

Progress will be slow though!

Thanks for looking.

[marknjayne]

nice cars,i have friends with Hondas who i do drive out's with once a month during the summer,some with serious Hondas too as you can see



this is about 500 bhp and 900 kgs







and a mates turbo's ep9 pushing around 450

[danzo_m]

I bet that don't half scream when its on full chat!!

[zltm089]

nice dc5!!!! ....i'm a big fan!

[rich_e92_335d]

New motor looks very nice. I showed my mate your pics, he recognises your old cars, GSung of Team 440 guise?

[J88AAF]

Yeah gsung, he had a k20 DC2 for a while. I met him briefly a couple of times at civiclife meets a few years back.

Keep saying ill get another honda as a weekend/track weapon but I'm spending a fair bit of time browsing for 240Z's and falling in love so after the next house move I think I'll maybe look into them with more purpose.

Just about ready to buy some CSL reps but CM Wheels are taking a while to get back to me.

[J88AAF]

So the wheels came last Tuesday (big thanks to Chris at CM Wheels).

I decided to keep the standard MV3 wheels on for this winter and store the new ones ... this decision lasted all of 12 hours before I ordered tyres. I've gone for Hankook K107 and K110s as they are rated really well for efficiency and noise, I also have a friend running them on his 123d (K107s) and he is really pleased with them.

Had the tyres fitted on Friday, spent the afternoon waxing them with Poorboys and decided to have a trial fit on one side of the car on Saturday (minus centre caps as I'm still waiting on a set). So here are the results ...





I'm really happy with them, as I was originally wanting something darker.

They are off and stored away now, but for how long I dont know as I am really tempted to just have them on the car regardless of it being winter or not!

[DMH-01]

Very nice DC5, I've got a soft spot for them.

Looks much better with the new wheels

[Dizzle]

Looking good fella, those wheels suit, really like that colour too...Bluewater...nice

[Alex.J]

Wheels look great! I really fancy some sexy 19's!

[Josh1a1h]

Looks great! Now it is time to drop her! That arch gap is scary

[J88AAF]

Thanks for the comments.

Originally Posted by Josh1a1h

Looks great! Now it is time to drop her! That arch gap is scary

You sound like the devil on my shoulder!

I do fancy a drop, but realistically I shouldn't. Main reason for getting the car was to have something that I could go on biking trips with so dropping it lower, then filling it full of riding gear and bikes on the roof, then driving on rutted trail centre roads if a recipe for disaster. I had Eibachs on my Integra and they werent too bad to be fair, but I can't warrant an £800-£1000 suspension expense at present.


Just thought i'd add my Thule set up to here too, just because when I was deciding on what to get I didnt find much info when looking for what others had used...

I've got;

Thule 757 Foot Pack
Thule 961 Wing Bars
Thule 591 ProRide Bike Carriers (x2)

[Josh1a1h]

Fair enough mate.

But I am not the only devil here There will be many more chiming in saying the same thing lol

But i guess you got to keep it practical... FOR NOWWWWWW MWAHAHAHAHAHA (Evil Laugh)

[a11y]

Sod the car pics - what about the MTBs?

Luckily I have other transport for my bikes than my e90, but I did just pick up a set of BMW roofbars to give more options. Sometimes I to enjoy the drive to the trails as well as the actual riding, something the 'van doesn't do.

[J88AAF]

Originally Posted by a11y

Sod the car pics - what about the MTBs?

Luckily I have other transport for my bikes than my e90, but I did just pick up a set of BMW roofbars to give more options. Sometimes I to enjoy the drive to the trails as well as the actual riding, something the 'van doesn't do.

Yeah i know what you mean about the riding commute.

I recently spent three days at a B&B in Peebles to ride Glentress and Innerleithen, the road from Moffat to Peebles was great. Almost forgot I had bikes on the roof! But I did find myself really wanting to be in the integra though.

I've had a fair few trail bikes in recent years; I had kept my old Sunn Crosss (1999) for 10 years but sold it in 2009, along with a Specialized P3 (2001) I had built. I sold the pair to get a Giant Talon 0 (2010) to get back into riding with and the bug soon bit so I bought a Trek Fuel EX8 (2011) and kept the two. Unfortunately in Nov 2011 my garage was targeted by theiving scum purely for the bikes, they left all my tools, power tools and power washer etc.

Insurance only covered for £2400 so I bought the 2013 Trek Fuel EX8 with that and spent the change on upgrades. Then once the weather sorted itself out in April this year I got myself a Charge Grater for commuting, I don't use Marge unless I really have to so I dont get any stupid DPF blockages! And it keeps my annual mileage down to circa 6k a year.

Here's a pic and spec of the current steed:



Maxxis Ardent Tyres

Shimano XTR Chain

Funn Fat Boy Riser Bar

Nukeproof Warhead Stem

Superstar Anodized Aluminium Headset Spacers

Charge Spoon Seat

Hope QR Seat Clamp

Superstar Nano Tech Flats

eThirteen Heim 3RS Chain Guide

[J88AAF]

Haven't posted on here for ages but had both good and bad news with Marge last week.

With the end of my AUC Warranty coming up I wanted a noise that had bugged me for a while checking out. I had asked BMW to check it when the car was in for its MOT with them but I was told that they couldn't replicate my issue when I picked it up.

In the end I booked the car in on the last day of the warranty as I couldn't get to them any sooner and made sure I could take a technician out with me.

I was paired with a senior tech and went out for a drive for him to listen to the noise which I could only describe as a metallic resonance that I believed to be coming from the drivers side somewhere. Once I got the car to make the noise the tech said it was something he hadn't heard before, we tried stops/starts, dropping the clutch and different speeds to see what made it worse and it just seemed to be the same noise coming every now and then. It never got worse, just came and then went.

On driving back to the garage I said to him I wonder if the resonance is RPM specific so we tried different rev ranges while driving and found it to be coming on in the lower RPMs.

When stationary we rev'd up the range slowly and sure enough the noise came on at about 1700rpm.

Cutting the long story short, on the last day of my warranty we had manage to diagnose the early stages of timing chain / sprocket failure that's very common with the N47 engine. Ultimately me dodging a £3-£5k bill and it landing in the lap of BMW for free.

I was convinced the noise was something wheel related at first, which is why I never thought about the timing chain issue. But just goes to show you need to get stuff checked out as early as you can or I could've been a lot worse off.

I have only done 7,000 miles in the year I have owned it so have been lucky its been caught at 47k miles within my warranty!