So job of the day gearbox oil filter and fluid change, all goes well but nervous about it due to fluid top up, followed the excellent guides on here but Ho hum hope I did it correctly.
Phone call from the wife cars made a terrible noise and now won't drive.
Drive the 3 miles to where she is start the car and it sounds like it's going to lunch it's self, restart and I sounds better but not good, thought I have trashed the box..
Drove it home thinking this sound rises and falls with engine tone so not the box looking like my alternator has seized on one of the bearings
Still not sure how SWMBO is holding me at fault, but that's life.

Any clues as to what car you are referring to?
How did an alternator stop the car from driving ?

Sorry my bad, it's a 4.4 V8.
It didn't stop the car she panicked and pulled over and told me the car won't drive, to be fair the noise it made when I tried to start it first time I would have pulled over.
I drove it the 3 miles home and when nearly there it started throwing up the battery not charging light.

If it is not charging and the belt is still turning the alternator ok then it is not too bad a job to do, just buy a new o ring ideally as it is water cooled but the part can be pricey. also you will need the fan off i reckon so you will need the long thin spanner and the holding tool.
there are a number of other bearings that could seize and cause the belt to stop moving which would also stop the alternator charging and the water pump is driven from the same belt which is the most critical one.
there are two tensioner pulley bearings and then the power steering is also off the same belt.
Torque converter is driven off the engine...... but that wouldn't stop your alternator... or would it.... no it wouldn't

Get it off and get it reconditioned.

There is a video on YouTube of Ed China doing one on an M5 which is a similar alternator setup as yours.

Good chance to change the coolant, stat and pump if it's not been done before. Best to donthe jobs that tie in with it if you can as Sod's law will say a few months will see the sty or the pump start to fail and then a few months later the other one go!

Takenit as a chance to flush the system out as well and afterwards make sure it's really bled well! FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

@Holidaychicken

Trust me: a seized alternator will stop the engine (4.4 M62) from turning. Mine seized the other week and the grease monkey thought I'd been off roading and some wood had jammed in the belt as the smoke smelt of burning wood. Belt off, new alternator and new belt and all is good.

Regards

John

Thanks for all the replies, bought an alternator today to replace mine if that's at fault if not it will be returned for a refund, won't know till I strip the belts off tomoz.
Yes reconditioning is an option and is in my skill set but time is against me as we go away in a couple of days for Xmas, the noise is to my ear a bearing failure but with a large amount of rumble/vibration.
This along with the battery light starting to show just before I got the car home and the smell of burning belt is leading me towards an alternator failure, the only warning I had was as I drove back from collecting the parts to do the gearbox oil change I heard a sound that I thought was an idler pulley bearing going dry. But the sound on driving home after the wife called me was different more a fan/whooshing sound.
Least I haven't trashed the box well not yet
Seen the Ed China vid a while back, euro car parts had a 32% off weekend so with that and the £130 surcharge a recon Bosch alternator was £330 not good but could have been worse.
New bearings would have been cheeper but tomorrow is too late as I cant get the bits and do it before I need to leave for hols new alternator is easy option and SWMBO has said just sort it not bothered what it cost make it happen.
Called in at the Indy that serviced my BMW and he thought that the water pump looked like it had been changed recently so don't think that's an issue but thermostat mod is on my to do list, that was before my issues.