Hi everybody, fairly new jaguar owner and I recently learned about driving in S mode. But had a question on when to change gears. When should I go from 3 to 4 or 4 to 5, etc.

 

Sport mode of the transmission does not mean that you have to change gears manually. With gear lever in D, Sport mode extends the shift points until higher RPM, using more power reserve of the engine. Drive car with gear lever in D in Normal mode for a while, then do same with Sport mode engaged and you'll notice the difference.

 

I'll give it a try on my way home. I'm gonna sound like an idiot, but if I wanted to drive manual, how exactly would he gears work and when to change gears?

 

With a properly working transmission there is no real reason to shift manually.
That said, if you want to put your foot in it, shifting manually allows you to take it the the engine redline before shifting.
A gentleman driving a fine piece of British Engineering would tend not to do that, but the kid in us can't resist when the rice burner with the fart can exhaust pulls up along side.

 

Those gears in X-Type are not much used in normal drive, only used in some occasion like when the road is slippery, with heavy load pulling up the hill, the S mode will give the engine extra rev and kick up the speed no needed to change gears.

 

When you put the lever over to left position 4, fifth gear is inhibited. In position 2, 3 or 4 the transmission operates automatically but will not engage a gear higher than the one selected. Do you have an Owner's Manual? Pages 110-111 gives an explanation of transmission modes and operation. In my opinion you don't need to change gears manually; there are some safeguards built into the electronic controller but "rowing your own" puts extra stress on the transmission and drivetrain. I use D mode with Sport engaged and find it very responsive.

 

akramii, let me put a little bit of clarification into what you are asking. The gear shifter will simply tell you the highest gear that the car will reach, not the gear necessarily (more on this in a moment). So, for example, if you put the car into 4 when you are stopped, the car will start out in second gear (not first) and will allow the car to start to roll and then as it reaches a point where it thinks it should shift, it will shift to third, then finally to fourth. So, the gear shifter is not telling you necessarily what gear the tranny is locked into.

Another advantage is if you find yourself in a snowy condition, you can initially put the car into 2 and this will force the tranny into second gear. The benefit of this is that you will not get a lot of torque to the wheels and will help you maintain traction and get the car rolling. Then, once the car is rolling, you can shift it back to D to maintain speed.

As for when to shift using the J-gate, this is all based on how you are trying to drive. But, like others have said, by simply turning on the Sport Mode (S light lit), this will allow the tranny to shift itself and will allow the engine to potentially rev all the way to redline and shift according to how much you are asking from the vehicle. If you insist on shifting it yourself, then you can change gears whenever you want. Just keep in mind that if you get the RPMs way up there and then have the tranny shift, this is going to put extra stress on the transfer case (which is the known weak link in the drivetrain) and can lead to earlier failure.

As for what the shift point will be when comparing Sport mode on and off, this is a very relative thing. The sport mode shift point will always be a higher RPM, but the amount that it is above is relative to how much gas you are giving the car. In sport mode, it will raise the shift point by around 500 RPMs or so (assuming you have the pedal fully depressed). But, if you are driving normally, it may only raise the shift point by 50 RPM (hardly noticeable). So, there is no set "sport mode raises the shift point by XXX RPMs".

 

That is very useful information. It is not mentioned specifically in my owners handbook. "...will not engage gears higher than the one selected"

Some cars sold in the UK have a "snow button" which inhibits first gear.

Now I know my X type has the same facility which is more likely to be useful in a slippery field.

Just south West of London, snow is not very often seen.
So far this winter we have had just one morning with snow on the ground.

 

henry k, another trick you may find of interest is if you don't have DSC on your car, when in a slippery situation, you can gently ride the brakes as you apply some power. What will happen is if a tire looses traction, it will cause it to speed up and heat up that brake pad, resulting in that pad getting more sticky and therefore causing the tire to slow back down and load up the other wheels with power to get you out of your situation.

 

Thermo
I do not have DSC so will store your info in the memory bank for possible future slippery conditions.
Thanks