when I start my car, it runs like ****, barely idling. When the key is in the acc position, all lights, ect will come on at full brightness. when the car is started however, all lights dim, headlights flicker, temp guage goes crazy, up and down, tach falls and rises, its really like some one needs to excersise the deamons from my car. does that sound alternator-ish to you?

 

Possibly alternator, could also be an air flow sensor. If it was an alternator though it would not have a surging idle. A surging idle could mean a lot of things.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Slimm-rw- &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">when I start my car, it runs like ****, barely idling. When the key is in the acc position, all lights, ect will come on at full brightness. when the car is started however, all lights dim, headlights flicker, temp guage goes crazy, up and down, tach falls and rises, its really like some one needs to excersise the deamons from my car. does that sound alternator-ish to you?</TD></TR></TABLE>

It sounds like you have a bad ground. Have you done any electrical work lately?