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.

[track day master]

yea ur prob right your alt might have a bad berring you can try to put new berrings in it but it's prob esiar just to buy a new one

[danielb0101]

its probably the knock sensor had the same problem