Accent 2001 weird electrical problems

Hi!

This is my first post. Thanks for taking a look at it. Problem is pretty weird and I have been investigating its causes for a few days now.

First things first. I was standing at a red light, idling engine just shut down. Tried to restart - not starting. Changed the battery - problem solved for 2 days.

Engine then started to run erratically after driving onto the highway. I could barely make it to destination with engine running with a "fish catching" feeling like if I had misfires (I know I have some voltage leaks through the ignition wires on rainy days). Once ignition switch was turned off, engine wouldn't start for about half an hour (time to get the motor to cool).

I've been investigating on the alternator. Last week, voltage at the battery with the engine running was of 14.6V, so I was quite confident that the alternator was no problem, but when the problem happens, I get a voltage oscillating between 8 and 10V which is really bad. Cluster's lights gets away, rpm gauge goes crazy, and all electrical utilities stop working. Plus, engine idles crazily but this is normal since electrical power is loss somewhere.

Something more worrying happened today. I just started the car to take some voltage measurement at the battery and I noticed that it was only rising, rising, and rising. I turned off the engine when I saw that it wouldn't stop passed 16V. It scared me because I do not wan't to make the problem grows bigger.

This is probably some voltage regulator problems, but I know this might also be due to bad grounding. I will investigate on this as soon as the weather here in Quebec gets more clement. About this, what should be checked first? I did a ground test between the negative lead of the battery and the alternator casing, and it showed less than 0.1V so I guess my grounding system is no problem. Am I right? Also, how to check the voltage regulator? it is an internal VR included in the alt assembly.

What else could be the causes of this problem?

I invite you to go check this youtube link. This is what happens when the electrical problem occurs. Engine idle badly, but as I said, this is surely due to lack of power in the electrical circuit.

I couldn't post my link since it is my first post. Youtube this: "accent 2001 weird electrical problems"

Thanks a lot! I'll also give some feedback about all this.

Also, go see my other post about squeaky noise coming from the front axle.