hey everyone-
thanks for the battery advice from earlier today. i took it to an interstate battery dealer and swapped it out for a new one. the old one was ok, but kinda marginal, didn't perform really great on the load test. alternator is fine.

but here's the new thing i discovered after driving around doing some errands today. after parking the car at home, i step out of the car and hear a hissing like a flat tire (thinking "oh man, when it rains it pours i guess, damn!"). upon closer inspection (head near bumper at rear of car) i realize it sounds more like an electrical buzz... hmm... explains the original dead battery. with everything in the car turned off, pulled the neg batt cable (the buzzing stopped - go figure) and ran a static current test with voltmeter (ammeter settings) and at "10a" setting it said 6.0 does this mean 6.0 amps? or 600 milliamps? not sure how to interpret my result.

also, what is running at the back of the car that could cause draw besides the lights?
all my fuses in the fuse box look ok, i am going to go out and pull them and clean them off... what else should i be looking at? how do i do a voltage drop test? or am i supposed to check for continuity? anyone else encounter buzzing from back bumper area of car?

thanks for any expertise shared!!!
-kathryn