I had an electrical problem this summer. I had a bad altenator and i think it eventually fried my optima battery over the course of a year or so. I replaced the battery, alt, and put in some new battery cables. the car starts right away now but the voltage meterin the dash will jump around a little. It will be at 14v or so then jump quickly to 8v. the lights will usually dim when this happens. the car is also running real rough at idle. you can feel the motor kicking around alot. if i give it a little gas and hold the pedal in the same place you can hear the rpms fluctuating. throttle response in general is very sluggish. where should i start to look?

 

Any ideas the car also takes some time before it idles correctly after disconnecting the battery. If i disconnect it for the night and start the car the next morning the car will idle really low and then after a minute slowing raise the idle to the correct rpm. It seems to raise in equal increments like the computer was adjusting it. It will continue to return to this low idle whenever i stop the car at a stop light. I'll stop at the light and the idle will slowly return to the correct rpm. After a week or so it seems to learn to idle higher but now it will idle around 1500rpm if the car is moving and if it comes to a stop it will idle at 1500 rpm for a minute then slowly lower the rpm to the normal 850ish area. Is this normal? What should i check?

thanks