Someone might be able to enlighten us as to whether this is applicable universally.......it reads that way.

Are you game?.

http://www.autoserviceprofessional.com/article/100404/battery-cable-reset?utm_source=email&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_campaign=20171129-NL-ASP-Enews-BOBCD171123003&omdt=NL-ASP-Enews&omid=1001092797

not seen it done with the ignition cycled but just the straight short + to -   

3 hours ago, cheshire_cat said:

not seen it done with the ignition cycled but just the straight short + to -   

Is the +to- in order to equal the potential within the electronics........a base line?.

you're getting out of my paygrade  ;-)

6 hours ago, cheshire_cat said:

you're getting out of my paygrade  ;-)

Well I’m not qualified either......but it’s an interesting subject to me, but not others apparently.

I would guess its to drop voltage from ALL capacitors (ing' off then on)   otherwise they can take quite a time to "wind down"   air bags etc

Don’t we have a sparky in the house?.

Shorting the battery leads together with ignition off will completely (and instantly) discharge all capacitors in the power supply circuitry of all modules that have permanent live connections to these power supply circuits, i.e. definitely turn them right off.  The simple passage of time would achieve the same result over a few seconds or minutes, difficult to know exactly how long though, so this takes away any guesswork.

Switching the ignition on whilst the leads are shorted will then do the same for any modules or sub-circuits within that only get power when the ignition is switched on.

 

Should only really make any difference to anything that has either poor hardware design, or software bugs; but that might include a surprisingly large proportion of the systems.

Looking at Wino's reply, I agree. BUT most decently designed circuits allow for the capacitors to discharge over a time. Most of the caps in a car will only operate on 12v ( with a decent upgrade, depending on cost/ size/ etc), so none will ever have more than 12v ACROSS THEM, SO no chance OF A BELT.  But, discharging them into a SC, might cause distress to the membranes, so possibly it's best to remove the battery and let the caps run down naturally. In the event of high voltage stuff- most discharge stuff for HV circuits usually have some resistance in the circuit, as the spark at the short time current might do some welding/ cause an eye problem.