So I figured out that my amp draw is coming from my stereo head unit. It seeems to be drawing .25 amps when the car is off. when I pulled the fuse the light stopped glowing at the battery! Should I assume the head unit is deffective or is there something else I should be looking at/testing?:confused:

It seems 250 milliamps is alot for a modern stereo head, being it just has a clock and station memory and operator set-up to remember. Normal draw would be less than 100 milliamps (0.1 amp).

Are there two power sources for the head, one for the stored memory & clock and the other for ignition/power on?

Do stereo's require to be off for some time before they go into a 'sleep mode', say 10-15 minutes? Does yours have this function?

Yes I have two leads one for memory and one for ignition. Manual says nothing about sleep mode! Is this maybe a short? Don't think a short would behave this way!:confused:

Might be a short inside the memory, but doubtful. I would not count it out.

Try another stereo head for grins? Still shouldn't be over 0.1 amp (100 ma). More like 0.04 amp (40 ma), typical.

0.25A at 12V is 3 Watts - something is getting pretty warm I'd say. Can you feel heat anywhere?

Now if it were 0.25mA, I'd say we're in the ballpark for a memory retension circuit etc.

OK I think I have reasoned out the problem! I took redings again and my amp meter reads .25 amps for about 2 seconds and then it drops to about .01! I think this is some kinda capacitor discharge??? Then the circuit stabalizes?? May be I didn't have the power or negative leads connected well enough and it kept arcing causing the discharge to continue over and over again!!? And now its stable with a strong consistant connection? Does this sound probable??:p

Good job in troubleshooting. Having poor connections did not help the situation. Soldered connections are the best.

I suspect when the head unit is turned off, it does a soft download, much like your home PC when you turn it off. So, after 2 seconds, just enough current is needed to run the clock. 0.010 amps of draw is good, very good.