Intro and Leaky X5 - Where's it coming from?

[garrett.fell]

Hello! My name is Garrett and I live in the Chicago area.

I've owned my 2005 X5 for about 3 years and 40k miles now. Obviously I've been fixing things along the way the whole time. I love the car, but it sure can be a pain in the ass most of the time. It's my wife's primary vehicle now, but I may take full-time drivership of it within the next few months after I get her something a little more "reliable" and less quirky. Like a Honda Pilot!

I have some leaks I need to chase down and have been doing research using this forum and a few others for the probable-cause. I am leaking two fluids at this time. Oil and coolant. It's been leaking a little oil for well over a year now - its not too bad and doesn't noticeably seem to accelerate oil consumption, but that may be changing now. It's pretty messy down there.

I am suspecting it could be one of three things, or maybe even all of them.

1. Valve cover gaskets
2. Alternator bracket
3. Timing cover

It's also leaking a bit of coolant. I first became aware of this around Christmas-time. Maybe 1/2 cup a week? Maybe a little more? I haven't been able to get a real good look at this yet and will likely have to wait until it gets warmer and dryer outside. It's hard to find out where the wet it coming from when everything is sloppy wet with snow and such. I'll probably pick up a harborfreight pressure tester.

So, it's an N62 with 109,000 miles. I've been fighting with the typical misfires a bit over the last few years and this winter it's thrown codes and has shaken like hell a few times. Last weekend I changed the spark plugs (they appeared original) as it threw a misfire code twice within a week. Knock on wood - it's been running nice for a week now!

Anyway - while I was doing the plugs last week I was able to get a little better view of where of where the oil might be coming from. I took some pictures.

I am hoping someone maybe a little more familiar with this things might lead me in the right direction. The main areas where it's leaking is on the driver-side towards the front corner of the engine. You can see on the vertical surface there's a lot of oil/dirt deposits and part of it has been washed clean. The alternator is oily as well…

Is this the timing cover or the valve cover?