The belt was $33 more than the alternator itself? Punctuation is your friend, everywhere in life.

Just did this job, nice write-up.

Here's something that might help also w/ that pain in the ass power steering hose:
1. Remove the 2 mounting bolts for the pwr steering reservoir so the hose moves more.
2. Tie-wrap the pwr steering hose to the radiator mount

When you do this, the alternator comes out and drops right in.

The other thing that can help is removing the 3 upper radiator hose connections except the upper radiator connection- it is tough to remove and does not need to be removed anyway.

Refilling the coolant didn't require bleeding out the air- save yourself the mess and just fill top it back off.

My X went into fail safe mode when the alternator broke. It ran poorly and wouldn't idle until I drove it around my neighborhood for about 15 min., then it returned to normal.

ThunderX

Is there any rebuild DIY for our alternator as is for the 530. I did my homework but I couldn't find anything helpful. Do you guys know if we can get the parts form somewhere. On realoem there is nothing.
Check the links below and see if you can help to put something together like this guys have. My alternator is still ok (206k km) but I am expecting it to fail based on this discussions.

DIY: 1998 528i Bosch Alternator Rebuild for $30! - bimmerfest - BMW Forums

Bosch_repair

Here is what I found but the pics don't work. The guy had the bearing specs in there but since no pics no specs.
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...oled-unit.html

I found the repair DIY for the alternator. I will try to fix mine this way.

http://www.meeknet.co.uk/E38/Alternator/Index.htm

Does the belt tension have to be adjusted when replacing the alternator?

Alternator
 

I found a nice rebuild alternator for $175. Its done in america by a company called QUALITY-BUILT ! Here is the link, if interested http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/se...art:Alternator)

01 2001 BMW 740iL Alternator - Engine Electrical - Bosch, Pure Energy, USA Industries - PartsGeek

Alternators from $148 and up.

I have removed the alternator twice on my '05 4.4 (N62 engine). One trick I discovered that would turn a 2 hours install job to 20 minutes job is to knock in the bolt hole metal gasket flush with the alternator before install as shown in the picture. Even new alternators have the gasket sticking out. The alternator slips right in with no struggles when the gasket is flush. That gasket bites into the block when you tighten the alternator mounting bolt and is what makes alternator removal such a struggle.

That does not look like a water cooled alternator mounting tab

It's not. He states it is for his N62 which has an air cooled alternator (thankfully).

Regardless, nice tip to know.