ok, i put a new battery in the car and now the battery light is on and when i got home and put the car in park and let it idle it was surging from around 800 rpms to around 1300 or 1400 over and over again.

hope you can help me with this, thanks.

How did the store determine that the alternator was working? What was the test? As for surging, that has been covered many times on this site. You need to do a search. But the first thing is to solve the red light issue.

he hooked something up to the battery with the car running, so to be honest with you im not sure just how accurate the test was. would the alternator going bad make the light come on and make it surge too?

the next thing is for me to actually to take the alternator off and have it check that way am i correct?

thanks

He probably hooked up a voltmeter to the battery and saw that the voltage with the engine running was higher then the normal battery voltage. That usually means the alternator is putting out power. Alternators can go bad. Mine lasted for 194K before the slip ring brushes gave out. The red light is an indicator that gets its power from the acc. power circuit (when the key is on to engine run) and gets it ground at the voltage regulator. So if it is lit, the voltage regulator is not measuring any voltage. If it were, the voltage would be the same as the acc voltage and the light would be dark. So I would disconnect the voltage regulator plug at the alternator. With the engine not running, if the light goes out, the problem is in the alternator or voltage regulator which is part of the alternator. If the light doesn't go out, there could be a short to ground in the wire, or a short in the integrated control unit. I'll bet it is the alternator. Engine surging has been discussed on this site many times and you will just need to do a search for a fix.

ok i replaced the alternator and that fixed both problems. battery light went out and it doesn't jump or loose power anymore or hasnt for a few days.

thanks for the help