Just bought a '17 XE but my passive entry doesn't seem to be working. I must use the fob or phone app only. Is there a trick to getting it to work? I've tried everything and cannot find anything in the manual. I have also tried to use both fabs to initiate the passive entry to no avail. Help!

 

The 2017 lines did not ALL have passive entry (best to call in Keyless Entry, since "passive" often refers to security alarms locking/unlocking by themselves… and the Jaguars intentionally do NOT do that).

If my XE (or in this case your XF) is a base model or 2nd teir model (called the Premium Tier), it does NOT have Keyless entry. My XE had to be the 3rd Tier (Prestige tier in the US market) to get Keyless Entry, and I suspect your XF may be the same.

There is a way to “visually” check. IF your car is equipped with Keyless Entry, every door handle will have a perfectly round indentation in it, almost where your thumb tends to land when you pull on the door handle. That round crater or indentation in the plastic handle is part of the Keyless sensor.
…IF your doors don’t have the round indentation in them, your handles don’t have Keyless Entry.

Let us know.

I have heard that SOME dealership showroom models were specially pimped out with features that the regular stock or ordered cars wouldn’t normally get. If you bought a showroom special, it may break all the rules I just described above.

 

Thank you for your reply. I had a typo - I bought an XE not an XF and after contacting my salesperson, finally confirmed I do not have "keyless entry" and must use the key fob to unlock or the phone app. I also have the 2nd tier model. Another question for you, NewLester ... do you keep your vehicle in eco-mode and, if not, do you find your mpg's are drastically different?

 

Yeah, the Keyless Entry issue is a bummer. I am an owner who pushed the fob button in my pants pocket for more than 20 years, and never thought I would value Keyless Entry. But once I got the XE, and saw how many times a sketchy person on the city street notices my car as I’m getting out of it, having Keyless is something I love now.

As for ECO mode… Wow, you are asking about a bigger subject than you may think. I’ve seen discussions about Eco Mode go on for 6 pages on other Jag XE forums.

You may want to start this as your own separate thread---it’s up to you.
The XE is a weird species, and is officially a sedan (for daily commuting, business trips, etc). But it’s got way more sporty drive in it than the regular business or commuter owner can keep secret—and you find you just want to jump over the boring jerks who cut you off on the streets, or surprise the BMW and Lexus show-offs who drive their cars in noisy “sports” modes all day.

My XE is for commuting to an office 5 days a week all year. For that, I keep it in ECO mode almost all year round. Why? Because commuting is mostly boring, you come home from work with crap on your mind, and your foot may not be as calm and steady as it could be on the throttle---ECO Mode really helps this kind of driver, it raises the engine out of low gear as soon as possible, which keeps it from eating up so much gas, compared with what a typical driver will consume in Normal Mode.

What causes a lot of conversation in the forums, is that some of us are NOT “typical drivers”. Some drivers are very good at controlling the pressure on the pedal. That ZF transmission in the XE “learns” your foot over time, and IF you are really subtle and well-controlled on the gas-pedal, you find you can squeeze out better gas mileage in Normal Mode, than the car is programmed to do Eco Mode. It will only be a few miles better to brag about, and your foot has to be consistently focused (too much of a challenge for many of us).
I have been able to get better mileage in NORMAL Mode than ECO, but not every day… it’s a fun exercise to try on my commutes, but it’s takes practice, and like I say, coming home from work you’re just not always in a good mood.

What the other forum members seem to agree on is that, your foot plays a big role in how much ECO mode can be better than Normal Mode.
ECO will give you more miles on a tank of gas than Normal as long as your foot is not very heavy or erratic. If your foot is a smooth as James Bond is with the ladies, you can stay in Normal Mode and often out-score ECO.
But if you just want to go all wild with the XE, or you often let the silly drivers get your temper up while you’re driving, ECO will treat you like a hopeless cause, and won’t save you much miles at all.

Do you commute? Or is your car mostly for random trips and taking passengers?

 

Regardless of not having the "dimple" in my door handle, I LOVE THIS CAR! Yes, I'm a commuter and have experimented with eco and non-eco driving. I'm used to driving hybrids so my foot is definitely "trained" on the accelerator. I think I prefer, thus far, not using the eco feature. The car defaults to this setting and I haven't researched if there is a way to turn it off as an automatic setting.

Thank you, NewLester for all of your insight as a veteran Jag owner. Your information is greatly appreciated.

~Steph in California

 

Welcome to the forum ssimmo2,

I've edited your post #1 from XF to XE to avoid confusion.

Not surprised you didn't find a definite answer in the Owner's Handbook. The generic handbooks Jaguars have where everything is included with the caveat "some of the options shown may not be fitted to your vehicle" aren't exactly helpful.

Graham

 

Thanks, Graham!

ssimmo2,
All four driving modes (Ice-Snow, ECO, Dynamic, Normal) have to be manually changed by pressing the left or right arrow buttons on the center deck beside you.
Any time you click to one of the modes, the car assumes you want to stay in that mode permanently, and it becomes your “new” default mode the next time you start the car.

So, just switch to ECO to make ECO the default from now on, and switch to Normal to make Normal the default from now on, etc.

The ONLY EXCEPTION is Dynamic Mode. Jaguar designers have programmed the car NOT to stay in Dynamic mode. If you park your car in Dynamic for longer than 6 hours or so, you’ll come back and find the car in Normal mode when you start the engine again. (LOL, perhaps Jaguar knows that Dynamic Mode is too raw and dangerous a toy for us owners to get too relaxed with).

 

Hi,
In the US here- I'm having the same issue with my 17 XE R-Sport-I just bought 2 days ago. it does have Keyless entry as confirmed on the Monroney sticker, and the indentations on each door handle. I've replaced the key fob batteries with brand new Energizer batteries with expiration 3/2029 date and I've even replaced the two fuses for " Keyless Vehicle Logic Module" 5 and 20 amp. Still does not work for using the hand touching the door handle, or opening the trunk when within a few feet. I read the next thing to try is taking either the Neg or Pos off the battery for about 5 min and see if that works. Before I do that, any other suggestions? Otherwise I'll take to my new Jaguar dealership that will be servicing it.
Thanks

 

I also found a video on YouTube - For a Land Rover- but thought it may work for the Jaguar. It didn't. Inside the car, with the FOB- click on the lights button 3X and then click the "unlock" button once. This disables the keyless entry to prevent thieves from stealing the car/supposedly. I thought maybe the previous owner did this to my car. To turn the keyless entry back on- click the Lights button 3X, but then click the "lock" button once to engage the keyless entry. Was hoping this was my issue, but it didn't help. Still not working. Thanks for any suggestions. Have an appt for 28AUG at the dealer.

 

Howard Orloff Chicago has has my car since 28 August. Check engine light- part had to be ordered. Eventually got here TUE 4SEP and took more than a day to install? Get a text today, that they just now ordered a module for the Keyless entry. The car has been there for over a week and they just now figure out today a module is needed? Seems they can't do two things at once. Unfortunately it seems the bad reputation for Jaguars and LandRovers is alive and well. I've had Audi, BMW and Porsche cars and this Jaguar service department sure isn't up to par with them. Love the car for the 2 weeks I was able to drive it though. I was hoping all the bad comments about these cars and their dealers was just a case of bad luck.... guess not.