To remove the battery cable or not

First: The Autostart manual says "Do not remove the battery cable because of airbags and factory audiosystems"

So today I was installing the remote stater on my 2001 jeep grand cherokee, I removed the wiring harness from under the steering wheel (for those of you who have done an install on the jeeps, the wiring harness can be disconnected.) So then I was stripping the harness wires so I could solder the wires to them, i cut into one of the wires with the wire stripper and the vehicle started to crank. Scared my shadow away!!! So then I removed the battery cable and continued working on the vehicle. Is it a general rule to remove the battery cable? I always remove the battery cable when installing performance parts into my cobra and such but the manual said not to so I didn't. Basically im asking do you guys remove the battery cable or not?

well, gotta think about common sense. what if you need to exchange battery or if the battery died? rule of thumb, if youre afraid of gettin things short circuited, remove the terminal. down side, if the audio system have code, better get the code b4 removing. Houston,TX

"The two most common elements in the universe are H+ and stupidity" (Ellison).

I've never removed a battery cable unless I had to clear a code or reset somthing. (just remember to cut or strip only one wire at a time.... they don't dig getting paird up...)

Here's the thing. If you're reckless about putting the battery back*, you can actually damage some of the computers that control things like air bags and what-not. It's sort of a long-shot kind of thing to happen, but it is possible. Plus, the time computers are most likely to fail is when they're powering up, so if the computer fails when you reattach the battery lead, and they put that warning in the manual, they'll have a much easier time convincing you it was your fault. (And not saving 3 cents per part on the assembly line!) Having said that, I've never ever disconnected the lead on the battery, except when I was specifically trying to reset computers (door locks, usually). I would much rather have the car's electrical system available to me when I test wires... Me *The only scenario I can imagine being even somewhat probable is if you scratched the terminal along the post so that the car kept getting power and not in quick succession.