I bought a Mopar cold air intake for my '09 Challenger a few months ago that I am finally getting motivated to install.
Reviewing the directions, one of the first instructions is to disconnect the battery. I'd rather not have to do that if not necessary, because I'd have to reset everything after reconnecting the battery and have to drive the car a while before it "relearns" engine controls. I am questioning if this is really necessary, is it just a general safety instruction they give for just about any maintenance task, or would the disconnecting and reconnecting of several sensors during the installation process potentially screw something up if the battery is still connected?

Instructions were the same for my Mustang, I didn't disconnect battery and all is well.

IMO, it's a standard line they put in ALL instructions.

Sort of figured that was the case but wanted to confirm. Thanks!

It depends where the batt and the intake are.You can buy a plug that takes a 9 volt battery.Plug it in the cig or acc hole and it keeps the memory alive.We used them at work when we replaced batterys.Lots of cars have a lock on the radio and if you dont know the code they will not operate.Had lots of people that didnt have the code that was set in their radio.Rocky

Good point I forgot about that.
I saw "Goss" on the Goss's garage portion of the Motorweek TV show using one of those plug in power tenders once, have wanted to get one to add to my bag of tricks ever since. But who sells them?

If you disconnect the battery,
the PCM computer will also reset
and then upon re-start
it will default to a very rich (but safe)
setting on its 'Adaptive Fuel Factor' in Chrysler-speak,
also called short term fuel trim by other auto manufacturers,
and the 'Added Adaptive Factor also called long term fuel trim.

This will make all the air to fuel ratios richer
when you start the vehicle after the CAI install.

The engine will
sound and feel smoother
with these initially richer settings
(the fuel factors will "learn" their way back to stoichiometric a/f... it will just take a while)

The CAI manufacturer uses this trick
to make the buyer think that
the intake has made some major difference.

The CAI manufacturer is also counting on the customer not knowing to,
or having the OBD-II equipment for
checking the
before/after
wide-open-throttle MAP readings.

The CAI manufacturer is counting on the customer hearing the added noise from the intake without the resonators in the factory design.

And the CAI manufacturer is also counting on
the customer not finding a friend with a similar vehicle,
taking both to the dragstrip,
and swapping the CAI
from one vehicle to the other
over a series of side by side runs,
with the driver's swapping vehicles too.