Here is the background:
About 3 weeks ago my car started dumping coolant, which I tracked down to a leaky heater hose. Lacking a garage to do any real work (and the damn hose was in the back under way too much stuff) I brought my car into the shop. The mechanic replaced the hose was as well as my valve cover gaskets. When I came to pick up the car the mechanic also told me that my battery was dead and negative lead was broken. The battery was only 3 years old and I hadn't had any trouble with it up to that point. The battery was under warranty so the mechanic replaced it and soldered on a new negative lead.

I drove the car for a few days and it was fine and then didn’t drive again for 2 weeks. I went on vacation and when I got back the brand new battery was dead. I had no dome light, no radio, it was dead. I was able to jump the car and the alternator charged the battery (I was able to start the car again after driving around for about 15 minutes), however the next day the battery was dead again.

Here is what I have done as diagnostics:
I attached a voltmeter in series to my battery. When nothing is on, my car is drawing about 250mA. That seemed high to me so I opened the fuse box and started pulling fuses. After I pulled the "hazard" fuse my car was only pulling 15ish mA (I don't remember the exact number), and no other fuses made a major difference.

I replaced the hazard fuse and went through the fuse box next to the driver’s seat; however none of these fuses dropped the current. I then went through and disconnected all the lights that go on when the hazards are on, the 2 taillights, the 2 in the front, and the 2 on the sides of the car. I was hoping that there was a short in one of the sockets but disconnecting all the lights didn't seem to make a difference. Just for kicks and giggles I also disconnected my trunk light and my glove box light which also didn't make a difference.

After doing a little research online I learned that the solid state memory for the cars chip is also on that circuit which scares me a little.

I have two questions:
1) Does anyone know of anything else that is on the “hazard” circuit?
2) Does anyone have any idea of where the short could be, or at least know of more diagnostics so I can do to narrow it down?

General Info about my car:
It is an 88 Honda accord LXi that my family has had for about 4 years. It has 120,000 miles on it and is in pretty good shape. In the 4 years my family has had the car is has only required minor work and none of that work has been in the electrical / charging system.

Thanks in advance and you are going to have to bear with me, I really don't know that much about cars (I just have smart friends and know where to look for information).

 

could be your wiring... if you were anywhere close, i'd help you sort this out...

http://www.3geez.com will probably be more help than here, though...

 

Vanilla Sky,

Thanks for the referral I will post on 3geez.com too.

If you were closer how would you go about doing the diagnostics? At this point I can see a ton of possibilities (crossed wire, something wrong with the chip, bad relay, etc.) and don't know how to narrow it down.

 

i'd unplug everything i could and monitor the voltage...

check your combination switch... it could be worn... unplug it...

 

Vanilla:

First, thanks for the help. Second, I am going to have to plead ignorance.
What and where is my combination switch? After a quick web search it looks like part of my steering column. Would that be on the same circuit as the hazard light and the computer?

 

I just tracked the problem down down to my ICU. I unplugged the little black box under my sterio and the draw magically dissapeared. My question is: where do I go from here?

 

i get the alternator checked out...

 

Why the alternator? To me it seems like the alternator works just fine beacuse the battery does charge when my car is running.

Woudn't the drain have to be comming from something connected to my ICU?