ok i've never realy payed much attation to my volt meter, normaly it sits at about 12.5 ish.....when the rpm hits about 5500 the volts shout to 16 the wipers work twice as fast and the fan runs faster to. is this normal????

 

thats pretty high
if your volt meter is working correctly and your alt is realy puting out 16 v your voltage regulator is bad / going bad
replace your alt

 

i just put a new one in last fall that sucks