...well if you have started .. you need may need a new fuse for your multimeter .. as I did several times doing this... 3 fuses blown so far due to leaden brain power!

There is an 8 A surge when you attach the battery as everything powers up then down... the trick is to touch the removed battery terminal (which ever is nearest) to get this surge past... now put the meter between the clamp and the post and remove the touched clamp/post .. this way the surge goes through the clamp/post interface to start with .. and the meter only sees the actually dark current .. which should stabilise within about 20 seconds unless you are being very methodical or looking for occasional pulses in which case a 'max' or peak hold comes in useful...

Normally you need to move the wires going into the multimeter to get 'A' readings... and as you are looking for 50-8 mA .. or 0.050 to 0.008mA .. you need to switch down to the lowest reading you can get.. I tried with the 10A rated one after blowing the 2A fuse in the multimeter.. and the resultant readings are too big .. i.e. 0.1A which could be anything..

Hope you still have that meter...! (2/00)

Alternatively, switch everything off in your car and disconnect the positive terminal on the battery, if there is any spark you have dark current. To measure how much, connect an ammeter in series with the terminals.

For those less technically inclined; the brass thingy with a hole in the middle and a bolt attached to a thick cable, to ammeter, to lead pole on the batterymarked + (red) . On a mk1 Mx5 this is the one that is easy to get at. (2/00)