Alternator/electrical probs

[fidelis83]

O.k. I have not driven my car in two months and I am ready to push it into a river.
Currently I have done several things to try to fix it but nothing helps:

I changed the alternator and cleaned all exposed electrical connections under the hood. This stopped the Idiot lights from blinking but the temp gauge still jumps around and is completely innacurate.

After I did that I would have to jump the car to get it to start, and I could let it run for half an hour and it still wouldn't start itself so obviously either not taking a charge or the starter isn't engaging correctly. Checking the voltage after letting the car run it actually has lost one volt on the battery from 12.2 to 11.1 so its not charging. But the idiot light doesn't come on when its running (it does when its off)
Seriously I hate my car, please help me!! I realy don't understand what the hell is going on.
P.S. I also have removed all of the visible orange relays and replaced them one by one with different ones (the ones I used worked) to see if it made any difference. To my knowledge it didn't.
P.P.S At the same time that I had all of these other poblems start up the temp gauge started jumping around like mad minutes after that I turned my car off and things haven't been the same since.

[chuckybob]

have your battery load tested and test your coolant temperature sensor

[AdamF 88iS]

You probably need to tighten the nut on the back of the temp gauge. It will have a bad conneciton if that nut works lose, which they tend to do.

As far as your charging problem, what voltage do you have at the battery while the car is running? If you are in the 13-14 range your alt is fine and your battery is toasted. If you are under 13 you have a charging system problem.

[Speed25]

Voltage regulator.

[kowalski]

iv got a question for you wiring people. don't mean to thread jack, but i have radio whine that comes through my speakers. did it on the stock radio/amp, does it on all 3 aftermarket amps i'v had. stops if i disconnect the alternator. i'v had 4 different alternators, and i'v grounded everything to do with my radio. whats my problem?

[DriftinE30]

what kind of plug and wires are you running?

[kowalski]

umm they came on the engine when i bought it. they are red, and they have ground wires comming out of them... i i forget the name of them tho, i saw them in a magazine for like 400$. i also have stock wires that i swapped out for them, but the noise didn't go away. the plugs, i tried platinum ones, and now im back to bosch supers. i had noise with both. i also tried running noise suppressors in line, and it didn't do much.

[fidelis83]

fixed my probs

ended up being the grounding wire that I took off to clean up when the alt. went bad, must've had a very specific spot where it would make contact that I didn't get it back into. Anyway used a dremel sanding drum to clean up the tab where it attaches to the strut tower and viola, problems solved
On to the other problem with noise supression, do you have the original amp still in the car?