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.