1. The car has often had a dead battery of late. The fact that it is seldom used, and then only for short trips, may be the whole explanation. I tried to use a test light to see if the battery was draining with everything shut off, though. First time I have ever done such a thing---I'm no mechanic---so I want to make sure I did it properly. I disconnected the cable from the negative terminal. I found that if I touched the probe to the clamp on the cable and the clip to the termininal, the light came on (with the car off, door closed, everything off). I removed each fuse individually, while my wife kept the test light in position. The light never went off. If I did things properly that would make me think that the battery WAS draining and that the problem was somewhere before the fusebox; does that make sense? I also noticed that with the test light clip on the cable clamp and the probe on the battery post, no light.

2. I haven't had the car long; this was the first time I looked in the fusebox. THere is no fuse in slot 24, the SRS test circuit. I am worried that I have a bad airbag and that someone pulled the fuse to keep the warning light from coming on. I was going to stick a new fuse in there, but just wanted to make sure that this wasn't going to deploy the bag in my face!

Thanks!