Its not so hard. I removed the fan shroud. Then removed the belt.
Then removed the secondary pulley mounted on the alternator. Disconnect battery.
After you remove the pulley you will see the bolt mounting the alt. to the
Engine bracket. Take this bolt all the way out and loosen the top bolt also
But dont take top bolt out yet.
Tricky part was actually pulling the alt. out. You have to use top bolt
As a pivot and rotate the alt. counter clockwise. Then Just grab it and pull it
Towards the front. The alt. is very heavy. You may need a second person to hold it while you remove the connectors. You may want remove top radiator hose and you have to move
Power steering hose out of the way which runs right in front of the alt.
I had 4.4 2005 x5 and alternator went bad on that too around 80000k miles.