It looks like a few of us have had the "Gearbox Fault" light come on and resolved it with a soft reset. In my case it came on just after lifting the manual release lever (in the center console), rolling the car, and then resetting the lever to re-engage the transmission. According to the factory and my dealer that should not be a problem since that is the only way to roll the car with the engine off. After performing several resets and calling the service dept. for help nothing canceled the fault or allowed the car out of park. Unfortunately the car was located in a difficult spot. Roadside Assistance sent out a tow (rollback) and the car was taken 100 miles to the closest dealer. Long story, short the dealer could not find the problem and sent data to the factory. After a week they determined that the car had a virus. They wiped the memory, reloaded the software and everything worked again. The dealer is not sure how it's possible to get a virus but it raises the question of reliability and a whole host of what ifs.

Has anyone out there had a similar problem or know how to avoid a virus?

 

That is not the only way to roll an auto trans F-Type with the ignition off.
Turn the engine on and select Neutral, then turn the engine and ignition off (and don't apply the EPB!).
The trans will then stay in Neutral for 10 minutes before it shifts into Park all on it's lonesome.
This has been designed into all modern Jags with ZF auto trans for many years now, mainly so the car can be loaded onto a flatbed without having to faff about with the release lever.

 

So... I work in technology. The term "virus" doesn't make any sense at all in this context, and raises a host of questions. What component was "infected"? What memory was wiped? What data was sent to Jaguar? There are probably on the order of 100 electronic components that could be classified as a 'computer' on our cars... and none of them could be plausibly infected in my opinion.

My guess is that the term "virus" was a (rather poor) analogy that your dealer or Corporate used to indicate a software fault that was fixed by reflashing some component (automatic transmission firmware?), but that lacks malice or transmissibility of an actual virus.

Basically I think your worries should be about run of the mill automotive reliability (or lack of), not viruses—as that has literally never been a thing in the real world.

 

i agree, they would have much larger issues if it was indeed a "virus" it was just the way to describe a module fault that needed to be reprogrammed. i have pulled the emergency trans release many times on mine to tow it and move it around my shop. My next question would be what caused this and is it going to happen again(they will probably not know at this point).

 

"It might be a virus." That's what doctors say when they can't figure out what's wrong.

 

I discovered that if I knock my Bluetooth OBD adapter out of the plug with my knee while driving, on 2 occasions it has created a gearbox fault. The fault allowed the car to continue like normal (but displayed the fault on the screen) until I shifted into Reverse or park then had to wait a while before the car would allow me to shift back into drive (5-10 minutes with the car off).

Once I realized this connection I stopped leaving the bluetooth OBD (using Torque app) plugged in 24/7. The first time it happened I drove my self up a wall trying to figure out why the fault came on, the second time I realized the OBD came out at the same time.

 

THANK YOU!!

I knocked my Automatic Pro OBD2 loose while getting gas yesterday, and the car went nuts... TRAC not available, Gearbox Fault, other messages I don't remember, and it wouldn't start... I panicked, of course. Logged in to Automatic to see what codes might be flashing, and there was nothing...

Because the adapter was loose.

Turned the key to 0, plugged the thing back in, and it started right up.

What the hell?

Anyway, THANK YOU!!! Glad to know it's not the car. I've now secured it in place with gorilla tape.