2000 Cougar - PLEASE HELP!!!?!?!??

[meg82]

About a week ago, on Sunday, October 21, I drove my 2000 Mercury Cougar about 30 miles to the airport, and on my route back home, I noticed that the battery light was coming on whenever the car would exceed about 2,000 RPM’s. It was snowing a bit, the first time this year, although it wasn’t too cold.

I instantly took my Alpine stereo face off and unplugged my Ipod from its dock because I was on the highway and feared my battery was dying. I didn’treally notice, however anything else about the car in terms of it being sluggish or the typical indications of a dying battery.

One thing I did notice was that when slowing down, approaching a turn or something of the like, without my foot on the gas pedal, my RPM’s would rise as if I were pressing the gas. Just last year I had replaced the battery so I was skeptical of that being the culprit.

This continued to happen, and now the internal lights on my dash would dim and brighten as I was driving. Last week I brought it to an auto supply store where they checked the alternator and the battery and reported that they were functioning just fine and that the connections were nice and clean. They told me to get a regular tune-up with fuel injector fluid change and that I should be OK.

They did mention that even though everything in the car was off, that something was pulling energy from somewhere, but not enough to be worried about it. I think this may have something to do with my stereo, which is connected to my Ipod through the glove compartment.

Anyway, today something was seriously wrong with my car. It was chillier than normal outside, around 50 degrees. I’ll list the issues that occurred during my mile and half trip to work:

1) The car was sluggish starting
2) The windshield wipers were very slow
3) Again, the battery light was on when the RPM’s would go up to 2k
4) Upon starting and sitting with the car idle, te engine revved on it’s own,
Raising the RPM’s to 2.5k or 3k
5) After traveling one mile, the stereo abruptly shut off and the face of the stereo
went black, I removed that component and the Ipod
6) The entire DASH went dead. I mean the electronic gas gauge, the electronic clock, the RPM’s went to zero despite the fact that I was driving, the odometer read zero even though I was driving, the gas guage went to zero, the hot/cold meter went all the way to cold, everything just went dead, even though I was driving along.
7) Upon pulling into my parking garage, it was baaaarely running. The windows were extremely slow and the readings on the dash were still all completely dead.
8) I heard my engine revving and slowing on its own pretty rapidly, even when I was stopped. The car attempted to die on me several times but I managed to get it into the parking space. The dash would try to come back “to life” occasionally, but would only remain for a second before pooping out again.
9) I parked the car and smelled a funny, almost burning smell when standing behind it near the exhaust, but it is hard to say whether or not it was coming from my car, since it is a parking garage with many cars in it.

Any input at all on the potential cause? Does this sound characteristic of motor, alternator, battery issues? I am clueless.

Of course, this would come at the most inopportune time, I’m broke, and desperately need the car to get around. Joy!!

Thanks for anything you can provide.