Pops had his Saturn in for some A/C work and he was telling me that the side lug for his battery had been sheared off. I figured that some gorilla over tightened it when he had it in for service. Wife calls the service bay at Saturn to inquire about this.

She relays that the terminal broke and is it possible the technician overtightened it causing this situation. The service guy says it has nothing to do with A/C work. She then asks him....when performing service with an electrical component, in this case the A/C compressor, they don't disconnect the battery? He repeats, it has nothing to do with it.

While most servicing it is inconsequential if the battery is left connected, isn't it considered the proper step to insure safety when servicing a component with an electrical connection?

 

That was a requirement for us working on all VW's. If you did something that carried an electical charge (Damn Near Everything) you had to disconnect the negative side of the battery. It was mainly done to prevent from accidental airbag deployment and preventing a short somewhere down the line. But I made it a habbit of recording the presets so the customer wouldnt know the difference when they got back in their car.

 

I question the technicians at Saturn if they have this mentality. Toyota I'd almost always get the car back with the radio memory gone...so I knew they had the cable off when performing certain services.

to you for the presets.