I went back today to the BMW Mechanic, Since I had left him a message last Thursday (new years eve) I was happy to receive a call a few min. before 8:00am. He sounded concerned and wanted me to bring it in after traffic eased up.
I got it to the shop with no issue other then my hands being very cold seeing that I had to keep the rear window slightly open and the sun roof vent open to circulate some air to keep the windows from fogging up.
He tested it and sure enough it wasn't charging. He had already had another alternator ready. He put something across the ' + ' and ' - ' bolts on the alternator then it started charging again. Battery light went out.
He told me that the 'switch' that tells the alternator to charge or not charge had got stuck in the off or not charging... ( I'm sure it's more detailed then that, but he but it in basic terms for me..)
So he still had my old alt. and check it out to, other then the bearings being bad it was charging fine. So he replace the Bosch alternator with the other one that had arrived this morning. He told me that he had it checked out before it was delivered. He installed it, ran some checks and looks ok.. 14.53v charging and with accessories on 13.79v... If my memory is correct..
So,.. I drove around in the rain and cold with as many accessories on as I could turned on. Wipers, lights, radio, charging my iPhone, seat heaters, rear window defrost, and heat for about 30 -45 min then came appon a mall and parked it, turned it off and let it sit for about 20 min while I went shopping for some thing for the wife (didn't find anything)... So I returned to the 328i I started it up,.. No issue so far... As before by this time I would be staring at the bright red Battery Icon on the dash wondering what is going on...
So I am home now and will let it sit again for about 2 hr. before I must go get some work done. 1:30pm