I have a short in my 04 Accord EX (4cyl). I've taken the following steps and am still unable to locate the source. Does anyone have any suggestions?

• Put test light on (-) battery terminal and the other end on the (-) terminal. Light came on verifying a short in the system.
• Pulled both wires off the alternator - The light is still on so I can rule out the alternator.
• Pulled every fuse in the car and under the hood one at a time and the light remained on. Source of the short is still unknown.

I'm stumped. When I remove the source of the short from the system by either pulling the fuse or unplugging the alternator the test light should go out. This hasn't happened. Am I missing something?

Any guidance is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

I wonder if the light stays on if there are certain systems always powered in the car (clock, ecu, etc...). That would keep the light on at all times.

Measuring the amps from the (-) battery terminal to ground might give you more information.

Maybe disconnect the two leads going to the engine bay fuse box to ensure that the battery cable isn't shorted.

The other thing that you could do is to remove all of the fuses and put them in one by one. If inserting a fuse lights up your test light, then keep that removed and continue on. At least you will know which circuits drain the system.

 

Like PA said, you'll always have some drain due to ECU, etc. Not sure what the current draw of ECU, clock, radio is when not in use, I'll guess about 100milliamps all together. Try a test lamp of 1 Amp or more, that will give a more definite reading. That's a 15Watt brake lamp. Then do the fuse thing to isolate the circuit.
Another thing is the condition of the battery and how often you drive the car. I have a second car and left it in the driveway for a week with the radar detector on, it killed the batt.