Yeah Danny, I spent several hours one night reading every step of these DIYs
https://www.germanautosolutions.com/..._diy.php#thumb
DIY: Timing Chain Guide & Timing Chain Replacement
and it was not exotic but a ton of tedious and precise work (not a stranger to this type of DIY work, but as a rookie to it, I'd sure feel better with a pro supervising me).
This year I tore into the front of my M62 to deal with a SEIZED alternator! I have never heard of such a thing but it happened on my X! I did all the stuff on the front of the engine, tensioners, pulleys, belts, every cooling hose, and of course the alternator.
Check out my post on that disaster here:
http://www.xoutpost.com/1093483-post44.html
My vehicle maintenance philosophy is to maintain to a long term up-time reliability standard and if I'm touching a 92K mile component during a job, I'm highly motivated to evaluate putting in a new one. After this alternator job I learned of the chain guides issue (which was just a little deeper from what I see), but that issue seems to occur from what I've seen, at much higher mileages.
At 6K miles or so/year, I'll be a few years away from guides, but if something changes, I'll get it out to you. :thumb up:
Mike