For face lifted E53 4.4i V8 engines, it is not water cooled, so nothing will be leaking from the alternator. It is not necessary to open cooling system to replace the alternator. The oem of the alternator is Valeo, you can buy an oem made by Valeo to replace the old one. It is easier to replace the alternator on N62 engines. Just remove the fan and loosen the belt, you can reach the alternator and remove it.

Phew! Thank you for the good news!

Is there a DIY somewhere that shows the "shortcuts"?

My watercooled alternator failed this morning on my 2003 X5 with M62 engine. I'll be tackling this job as soon as I can get a new alternator, belt and some coolant. I'll probably get started tomorrow. I'll follow up with any interesting tips/shortcuts.

Exactly!

I didn't see your post until after I was done, but I was ready to tackle this project (I have a 2005 4.4) ...... and when I finally got around to taking things apart, I realized that I didn't have the fluid cooled alternator - it was just a "regular/traditional" one. It took about 30 minutes to take out, I took it to get rebuilt, and then slapped it back in - another 30 minutes. So, after about an hour worth of time and $60 rebuilt, I was good to go. WAY easier than I was expecting after reading all the posts about the fluid cooled replacement.

I replaced my alternator on Saturday. The bearing had seized and broke the belt. I got a rebuilt Bosch from Amazon for $222 and two gallons of 50/50 pre-mixed coolant for $28.

The instructions by the original poster are pretty straight forward. Remove the intake duct and the air tube from air cleaner to engine throttle body. Remove undertray.

What I ended up doing to make it easier/less messy was just drain the radiator. Do this by removing the drain plug on the driver's side bottom of the radiator. Mine was a little blue plug - BMW did something nice by putting a little retaining strap on the plug so you don't have to worry about dropping it into the bucket that the coolant is draining in.

After you drain the coolant remove the coolant hoses/fittings as shown in the original poster's pictures. Loosen the belt tensioner, take the wires off the alternator (after unhooking your battery +/- connections. Unbolt and remove old alternator.

Clean area where alternator goes, bolt new alternator in. Now is a good time to also replace your air conditioner compressor drive belt. Reinstall water pump/power steering/alternator belt and set tension (there's a DIY on how to do this elsewhere on xoutpost.).

Reattach coolant hoses and refill system with coolant (mine took about 2 gallons). Put the intake tube and duct back on. Test drive. Check coolant level again once the engine cools down - don't remove the top tank cap when the engine is hot or you might get sprayed with hot/boiling coolant.

Now you once again have a happy wife, happy life.

Thank you so much! This helped a ton! Great write up!

This is my second time replacing the alt i want to know is there away to just plug a few water lines so i dont loose all my coolant?

Great write-up, sub'd for future reference. (Hopefully no time soon!)

Great thread thanks for going to the effort of doing this, im going to give this a go tomorrow as my alternator decided to sieze up last week and the belt ended up burning off.

Anyway happy christmas and hopefully it all goes well.

any idea how long this takes the average joe?