Electrical drain, seems to be clock fuse circuit

Zedex

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My only question is: am I doing this right? I haven't had to chase a short before, so if I'm totally doing this wrong, please point it out. If you think I'm moving in the right direction, please say so.

My new DD is an '02 Accord LX, 4cyl/5sp.
It seems to have an electrical drain. It takes a couple of days of sitting to create a no-start condition.
The starter was just replaced (it used to turn over slow and sometimes needed to be smacked to make it crank). That seems to be fine now, it cranks anytime there is sufficient voltage.

I pulled the negative terminal and ran the multi-meter in series across it, switched it to the mA setting and started pulling fuses.
Long story short: Only one fuse (that I tried) made the meter move. Pulling the 7.5a fuse labeled "clock backup" makes a measurable change. With this fuse out, the meter reads 1.90. With this fuse in, it seems to peg out and reads "1 . " with the gibberish spacing. I interpret this to mean "over 100."

Switching the meter to the "10a" setting and it reads zero with this fuse out and 0.1-0.3 or so with the fuse in.

The clock on the dash has a couple bars that don't light up; I yanked it out of the dash and tossed it aside. Unfortunately, removing the clock did not solve the electrical drain in that circuit.

An even bigger bummer is that my power door locks are somehow connected to this 7.5a fuse (even though they have their own 20a fuse). The FSM wiring diagram just shows a line coming from that fuse going into a "multiplex control unit" which sounds expensive. If my locks still worked I wouldn't give a **** about the clock fuse.


The above image is with the 7.5a clock fuse IN. (sorry for the blur, it was cold and dark)


The above image is with the clock fuse OUT.
 

kn0x47

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.1 to .3amp draw with a car off is normal. not really an issue till its over .8

have you had your battery tested yet? auto part stores can do a drain down test too
 

Zedex

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I forgot to mention: it's a brand new battery. That was the first thing I did.
Of course that doesn't mean it's not a total POS battery. I'll have it tested ASAP. I pulled the battery on my z31 yesterday and I think it'll fit in the Honda. I'll run it for a couple days and get this new one tested.
 

Zedex

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.1 to .3amp draw with a car off is normal. not really an issue till its over .8

have you had your battery tested yet? auto part stores can do a drain down test too

On second thought, don't you mean 0.03? Most of the stuff I see around the internet says ~30mA, which would be 0.030A? My meter was showing 0.3A with that fuse in place.
 
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