Throttle Sensor? Brake Sensor? Something Electrical is causing surging idle :( please help

[Ksmillie1987]

Also may be the rectifier on the alternator itself. See if you get any A.C. ripple with the engine running. Should be clean D.C.

all the research i have done i have learned about the small black piece that attaches to the alternator itself. but there is also a separate voltage regulator for the z separate of the alternator??

The DC is definately not clean... just in the last week or so ive started to notice an engine click that increases speed up or down with the throttle (through the door speakers) . its mainly when i have my fm transmitter hooked into the cigarette lighter.

Is the voltage regulator one of the finned boxes back in the battery compartment ? heck i was looking into the black piece attached to the alternator

the pic i attached is the only regulator that im aware of thus far

[Ksmillie1987]

You need to change your voltage regulator. If you see over 16V it will stsrt shutting modules down probably. You may normally get 14.5 or so on your MM but not 17. That is definitely high. The voltage should regulate well with the load so unless you have fitted some funky kind of battery the regulator is knackered. Or your MM is. If you dont mind me saying, you are getting frustrated, slow down and try to properley eliminate 1 thing at a time. You have to be able to trust your test gear before testing anything.

thank you- yes it is frustrating because im learning so much everyday from this forum. These z's are incredible how they operate . i appreciate all your advice and am going to switch to my digital MM for a more precise reading

[Ksmillie1987]

so I was driving today and decided to record some data that I think narrows down this issue. On my foxwell and FIXD scanners I can shift through all 5 gears and get up to highway speeds before any TPS% numbers change. I’ve gotta rev the throttle to almost 5k to get any movement out of it.

Would this mean I need to replace sensor within the gas pedal, or would this be the throttle body sensor?

[ph001]

Look at the tps values just with the ignition on as you press the accelerator. Then repeat with the throttle body sensor under the bonnet disconnected. This will tell which (if any) are at fault. You need to get your alternator regulator issue sorted first though. If you genuinely have 17v on the battery (which I doubt) the battery will be dead through gassing and none of your electronics stand a chance of working properly.

[Trav]

Did you try any of the testing on that guys alternator test video I PM'd you? Here is a link to another guys very straight forward testing. As Ph001 says, you need to bottom this out first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJT91-kP2A

The other guys link showed you better about voltage losses etc, but this guy is easy to understand.