SOLVED - Engine Stubles when cold - with SES

[ChevDog1]

OK - it just got more interesting. When I got home last night, I scannned it with my OBDII reader and it had no codes, and no codes pending. Backed it into the garage at about 10:30, and heard a slight squealing noise. It was late, so I wrote it off as needing a new belt, and went to bed. This morning my wife drove it to the gym to work out, and called on her way to tell me that it was making a "funny grinding noise". She said there were no messages or warning lights on the dash, so I told her to just ignore it. She then called to tell me that it was still making the noise, only now "it smelled funny". She couldn't describe the smell. so I told her to call me again if it broke down. She called back in about two minutes... siad that it made a loud squealing noise, and died. She tried to restart it while I was on the phone with her, and it made a loud squeal when she cranked it. So now, it's hitched to the back of a tow truck, headed for my house.

I'm thinking that it sounds like one of the accesories on the front of the motor has seized up. Anyone have other opinions?

[TwinTurboGTR]

Chain Guides?

[ChevDog1]

would they squeal like that?

[TwinTurboGTR]

They can make all sorts of noise because the chain is slamming around in the case. I mean a squeal to your wife, you and me are all different. Squeal to me is when a belt is slipping. Squeal to someone else is when there is high pitched metal to metal contact. Hopefully a pulley or tensioner seized and can be a good fix.

[Gurjit]

hopefully it is not the chain/chain guide
or ur in for a fattty bill

or 2-3 days of DIY

[ChevDog1]

Well, I actually heard the noise over the phone when she tried to crank it, and it didn't sound like metal on metal. If it is the guides, I can fix it. It's our third car anyway, so it's not a big deal if it's down for a few days. The noise it made last night definately sounded like a belt squeal, so I'm hopeful that it's just a tensioner or something simple like that. She sent me a pic of it being loaded on the tow truck, and there was no fluid under it, so that rules out a water pump explosion. This is my third BMW, and the other two have had idler pulley issues, so I expected this one to do the same sooner or later. BTW - the X5 has 109,000 miles on it.

[SlickGT1]

wow, ok let us know what it is.

Pull the belts off, and try to spin the pulleys by hand.

[ChevDog1]

I will.

I just found a thread on another forum from a google search where a guy with a 740i experienced almost the exact same thing - he had a seized alternator. I'm hoping for a simple fix like that. I can pull the alternator and rebuild it pretty cheap. Just put new bearings in my M5 alternator a couple of months ago. Cost $21 - much cheaper than a $400 rebuilt unit!

[TwinTurboGTR]

Yeah, lets hope its a seized alternator. If I had the time to tinker, I would have pulled my alt off and checked to see if it was a voltage reg. $60 and a new reg sounded pretty good. But I just said, eh F*ck it. Its got 91k on the clock, WTH, time to change it. SO I spend 4 bills on a rebuild bosch unit.

[ChevDog1]

Yeah - i just checked several auto parts stores, and $412 was the cheapest I could find. I'll tear into it tonight and see whats up.