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I recently bought an aftermarket head unit after the stock head in my '05 Civic decided eating CD's was more fun than playing them. I was talking to a colleague about it, and he said "what's the special procedure for disconnecting your battery in your car? You better check?" apparently his poogoat (Peugot) requires some kind of ritual to power down properly, or it's ecu forgets what it's actually for, and the car becomes more useless than it currently is.

Is there any special procedure to kill the power in a Civic? Or is it, as I anticipate, and have utilised previously, just a "pull -" job?

 
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well most newer cars will lose ecu programming when the battery is disconnected. thats why they sell "battery mender" or something at walmart which is a cable with 9v battery on one side that you plug into the cig lighter. then turn the key to ACC position, and the 9v will keep the ecu memory while you disconnect the battery. as far as battery disconnect, you just pull the cables off. technically youre supposed to do the negative side first or something so it doesnt spark. but ive never had problems either way.

 
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Never heard of anything for ecu memory. Just disconnect the negative battery terminal do the work and re attach the ecu will relearn everything in about an hour of driving. Been doing it for 5 years no problems.

 
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You have to do a rain dance and sacrifice your first born to Soichiro Honda.


But seriously - the only special prodecure you may want to do is install one of those battery backup things into the cigarette lighter... if you don't, you'll lose your radio presets, and you'll have to input your radio anti theft code.

 
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I'm taking the radio out, so I don't care! Thanks for the reassurances guys. Next week I'll come back to you asking how to get my car to start

 
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If you use a harness adaptor you really should not need to pull the cable. Do all of your soldering connection between the adaptor and the new headunit harness and just plug them in and go.

Please don't cut the factory harness.

 
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Um...ya go ahead and disconnected the batter. Be safe not sorry. I do not care if I have been working on XXX many cars i still disconnect the battery.

 
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Negative is always first off & last on!