Hello,
No, you do not need to have a back up battery standing by, and you don't need to race installing the new battery either. After 5 minutes with no power the Keep Alive Memory[KAM] in your vehicle's Power-train Control Module[PCM] or "computer" will be erased. This is not a problem as the PCM will relearn all the information that it needs through your normal driving. The main focus is to ensure that the battery clamps are connected nice and tight with no corrosion on them. Here is a link below explaining the process in more detail:
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-a-car-battery
Please go through this guide and get back to us with how everything turns out. I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros
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Thursday, December 19th, 2019 AT 5:45 PM