Alternator Bosch or OEM BMW

Agree with the other guy to have someone else take a look but if it does turn out to need an alternator £553 really is taking the piss. A quick search on PartsInMotion for your car and I see that a replacement alternator can be had for £108 and if you want branded then a Febi one weighs in at £162 and a Bosch one for less than £200

My first car was a E46 316i, under 100tkm on odo, had it for 3 years, literally gave no problems.

Sold the E46 and got a E39 530D because I love them. Has been reliable so far, I've had it as daily for almost a year now and the only critical problems it has had are that the alternator gave out after a couple of weeks owning and EGR thermostat was bad.

I've replaced the alternator (failed on me), done waterpump & thermostat (180,000km done as a precaution).

Instead of waiting for it to go bad on me should I order the $200 Bosch one off rockauto now (shipping takes 3-5 days) if I don\u2019t then I\u2019m stuck going and paying for that at a parts store. The Bosch one also comes with a 2 year warranty and roadside assistance if anything goes wrong with it.

I replaced the alternator on a 2013 XC60 T6, which was driven by a coupler. The Bosch unit had a drive pulley (not really a pulley) already attached.

I bought a good-quality Bosch Reman alternator for my 2012 Mazda and it cost me $128+$75 core ($203) from RockAuto.

I tried a Bosch reman from Rockauto on my Civic. Lasted about two years then the rear bearing starting squeaking.

This was the only non oe product in my car. When mine went it went . There weren\u2019t any bmw ones available for love nor money at the time. I get 13.8 out of mine as well. Can been fine for 12 months.

My friend’s BMW X5 had an alternator fail at 50k, she does a lot of city driving so lots of start/stops.

Bosch has a high failing rate unfortunately not like the good old days.