2008 Mazda5: How to remove glove box and parasitic current drain?

[MazdaPasta]

I have a 2008 Mazda 5 Touring. I'm having a problem with parasitic battery drain, and it looks like it's the circuit with the ROOM fuse from when I measured the voltage across fuse. These two posts have a fix - disconnect the bluetooth unit. But my Mazda 5 has no bluetooth!

I think it's unlikely, but maybe Mazda installed a bluetooth unit, but it's non-connected to anything. So, I decided to remove the glove box and check to see.

This post says the glove box can be removed in seconds. I tried, unsuccessfully. The side arms come out fine, but the "little arm at the bottom that does the soft [close] you need to remove that little arm from a little ball that's on the glove box side." isn't working for me. I can't get the little arm off the ball. I tried pulling left and right, up and down, jiggling it, and it isn't moving. Below, see my photo with the little arm in the red box. What am I doing wrong?

When I do manage to remove the glove box, if I find there is no bluetooth unit to disconnect, what else should I look for for parasitic drain?

(Photo of glove box)

 

[negusm]

What have you measured your draw as? If you have a clamp on meter, then it should be easy. Then pull the fuse and verify the draw has disappeared.

Taking the voltage reading across the fuse is a good way to start narrowing it down but you still want to be certain you are chasing the correct circuit.

 

[negusm]

This is for a Mazda3...but it looks about the same:

Does that help?

 

[MazdaPasta]

This is for a Mazda3...but it looks about the same:

Does that help?

I should have mentioned that I used that video to guide me on my attempt to remove the glove box. The Mazda5's is a bit different, the little arm on the right is on the outside of the large arms. but I still was not able to get it disconnected,

 

[MazdaPasta]

What have you measured your draw as? If you have a clamp on meter, then it should be easy. Then pull the fuse and verify the draw has disappeared.

Taking the voltage reading across the fuse is a good way to start narrowing it down but you still want to be certain you are chasing the correct circuit.

I measured 0.4mv, which according to this chart for 15 amp mini fuse, is 63 milliAmps, which I realize is not a lot, but it was the only voltage detected across any of the mini fuses (which are the only ones where measure the voltage across). I pulled the fuse, and over the next few days, I'll see if the battery voltage drops as it's been doing (I've been measuring the battery voltage with a multimeter and with a cigarette lighter plug-in voltage meter).

I just ordered a clamp on multimeter that detects DC current, so I'll be able to diagnose this more fully with that, if necessary.

 

[huesmann]

Not sure if this helps.

 

[MazdaPasta]

With the clamp ammeter, I had 220mA with the car off. I pulled the ROOM fuse, and it went up to 320mA (I'm not sure why it went up). I pulled every minifuse (I don't have JCase fuse extractor) under the hood and on the side of the dashboard to see if the current would drop, but no fuse pull did. In my attempt to plug the ROOM fuse back in, it sprang up and I lost it in the engine compartment. I picked up a new fuse at my local auto parts store and installed it. And now I'm only getting a reasonable 50mA current.

I have no idea what fixed it, but maybe I pulled the fuse on something that caused a reset. I'll check the current every so often. And I'll still keep my portable car jump starter battery in the car.