1997 528i BMW E39 2.8. Engine noise. Please help!!!

[beemermeup]

Yesterday my car started making a weird light grinding/whining noise from what appears to be coming from the upper front right hand side of the motor around the alternator under the power steering reservoir. Although hard to tell for sure. Normally the thing runs like a sewing machine so it was instantly noticeable. I am fairly mechanically incline and my guess would be the bearings in the alternator if there is such a thing? I just just had the water pump, thermostat, fan clutch replaced. 1 week later the plastic thermostat housing cracked so I replaced that with an aluminum one. So the belts have been of it twice in the last 2 weeks. Any Ideas would be great. This site is great and thanks for all the help.

[arks]

The alternator is a likely suspect. Take it off and have it checked- some places will do it for free. Usually a rebuild is less expensive than a new one.

[beemermeup]

thanks. i will have to have a shop do it because i just moved to florida and have no tools. any how many hours should i expect to pay for?