^Follow all of Stephen's advice, and I would personally go with a new alt - sooner than later in order to not fry that brand new battery

or screw up electronics in the x5 ,just incase the alt puts out power surge.

Cool ya that is my plan.
Now my problem is if I should get lifetime warranty from autozones new duralast alt.
Or new napa bosch style.

I don't think it is watercooled. Might you know @RickyBobby
If yours and mine are the same ?

And either way can i buy bosch or Valeo type or do I need to take mine out to verify then go buy one?

^If you move the PS reservoir out of the way you should be able to easily see the type of alternator you have, Bosch or Valeo - pretty sure the 3.0's have Bosch's but you should double check -

I don't think m54s ever came with water cooled alternators

That's what I thought. Sucks for the v8s haha

Well I'll check. It's been raining in the bay area the past couple days.

Alternator is all from in the hood no under the car??
I'd so I'll work in rain buto I don't want to get on the wet ground ha

You can do it all from above. Takes about 45 minutes. Remove fan/shroud, remove airbox and intske pipe up to the rubber elbow, unbolt power steering res and move it to the side, undo belt, undo two alt bracket bolts, rear wire retaining nut, unclip wiring harness on back of alt, then pull it up and out in between engine and coolant res.

Easy peasy. Don't forget to disconnect the battery.

Not the 4.8is guys. Ours comes out of the car in 15 min if you are dicking around while doing the work.

I too agree that your alt is on its way out. Especially with the red battery light and a fresh battery.

I have rebuilt my alternator with a new regulator over a year ago. The parts are super cheap, and you can get them from BMW. All I did was spin the shaft with my drill while holding an Emory cloth to the copper pulley thingie that the regulator brushes run against. Cleaned up that pulley and installed regulator. It was super easy.