I started the car today, drove about a half a mile and one of the belts started squealing. The gauges suddenly went wacky, with all of them jumping to the top then slowly fading to the bottom. Turning the car off and on again would cause the gauges to work for a few seconds, but the battery light came right back on. The engine also began to suddenly run faster then normal, after driving for a few seconds the car would run at 2k - 2.5k rpm for about ten seconds and then slowly drop back down to idle at 850 or so. The gauges have returned to normal, but the engine still runs at the higher rpm for a few seconds and then runs normal.
I tested the battery with the engine off at 12.58v and with the engine on at 12.08v and fading to 12.01v. I bought an alternator and replaced it and the belt, which was severely worn from a bent gear. I reconnected everything and started the car. The battery light came on almost immediately and I tested the battery condition again, 11.95 with the engine off and 11.5 with it on.
Can anyone give me some good suggestions, I have heard voltage regulator, link fuse and possiblely the computer. Any surefire methods of identifying the bad part or maybe something else I should be looking at?

97 DOHC Neon with 135k miles on it

 

well as far as ur rpms i would clean ur throtle body its prolly real nast with build up in it not alowing the buter fly to close right or it might be ur iac valve ur bat. light iam almost 100% sure its the little conector right on the bat tray i left mine unpluged when i did my tranny and i was trying to figure it out for hours all it does is let u no when u bat. over heats or somthign like that but i would check if that is plugged in or if its even working w ur volt meter gl w ur car man u sound like u had alot of bad things happen at one time

 

The fact that the belt started squealing would indicate a heavy load on the alternator possibly a short. Check the main charge wire between the alternator and the Starter +12v cable for continuity it may have blown the fusible link. These engine do run like crap when they done see a nice solid battery voltage. It’s also a good idea to load test the Battery. By the way the voltage regulator is part of the computer.

 

Thanks, thats what I thought as well, squealing due to an abnormally high load on the system (belt was loose and ripped up though, so it may not have taken much) I have an Optima Gel battery in the car and I just had the parts store put a full charge on it and it tested as fine. I also had them test the old alternator which also tested fine. So its definitely something other then those, I will be checking out the fusable link here in a little while.

 

Booya, I found the issue. After running a seperate cable to the alternator and bypassing the links I still had no charging. I started following the harness from the alternator up through the back of the engine. at one spot I found a clamp on the air flow tube had rested against the harness and slowly eaten a hole right through the wires running from the alternator. It must have severed the green wire when I drive off that morning. I reconnected the wire, started the car and the light went off. Thanks for your help guys!

 

this thread helped alot thank you for posting your solution to the problem!!!
i finally figured out what my problem was with similar issues with the battery light on my 2000 dodge stratus 2.0. there are two wires that plug into a factory harness on the back of the alternator. one of the two wires just pulled right out!
it was funny i only had the problem when it heated up, but then would be fine the next day! so freaking weird. i still cant believe that was the problem. i almost paid 224.00 for a computer and 150.00 for a new alternator!
thanks again for your post!