Help ID this crazy oil leak...
 

Hope you guys can save me some grief by narrowing down this issue...

background: started the car early am to get warmed up before dropping kids at school. come back 5-10 mins later and steady stream of engine oil underneath.

looking from underneath, oil pouring onto metal reinforcement plate and trickling down.
looking from driver side wheelwell, I see steady stream behind and above alternator.

not sure if its the alternator bracket, oil line, or valve cover.
never seen such a leak. just the usual drips here and there.

just wanting to narrow this down before attempting the alternator bracket. not sure if there is anything else in the vicinity that could cause this kind of leak.

thanks in advance for any input(s)...

and happy friday the 13th, and have a great weekend!

2006 X5 4.4

Steady stream and N62 it's usually the alternator bracket.

sounds good. thx!
didn't want to tackle this only to find out its not the alternator bracket

X2

I think you can confirm with the left front wheel removed the oil will be coming out of the bracket I think it's just aft of the CV axle.

im already trying to wrap my head around the job

one thing i dont understand is the bushings that snug the bracket up against the block...

any input on this?

i think there are three bushings that need to be snugged with an allen wrench.

what the procedure on reinstalling bracket?

Help ID this crazy oil leak...
 

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9866ecb03d.pnghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...56ca001bad.png

A couple reference photos of the alternator bracket with the blown seal. The clearer photo my phone was in farther than I could fit my head. I think it's also sideways.

gonna tackle this slowly and methodically. probably take 2 weekends.

for now the w123 is my daily... thankfully i did all the major maintenance on the benz already.

i found a good write-up by SlickGT1

any other references that you guys found helpful?

thanks for the pics!!

That writeup is good, especially with part numbers. I used it to order parts. I have them all here for when mine fails. But there are also some good youtube videos. Just search "x5 alternator bracket gasket."