Ok, in my misadventures of trying to find hidden things with the XJ, I ran across something that I found interesting. This one actually comes from the Land Rover world. In short, there is a hidden radio setup menu that you can access. Again, there are a fair number of screens that are mainly for info, but there are also some screens in there where you can actually do some good (or bad if you go too far). What you do is you start up your car and let the radio come up to the normal ON state. In the upper left corner is the "Valet" button. Press this button and keep your finger on the button. Keep it there for about 10 seconds. You will see the screen change over to the hidden menu. From there, you can make some fine tuning adjustments to make your experience better. The big things that I saw was you could get in and change the language that the radio uses (found out my car was set to "UK English" and I set it to "US English". You can also get in and adjust the contrast, brightness, etc of the screen. One note, there is a function for testing the screen. This will turn the screen white and when you tap the screen, it will place a little green dot on the screen indicating where the radio thinks you tapped the screen. This screen will remain locked in for about 30 seconds. Even turning off the car will not clear this screen. I had my pulse rise for a little bit, hence why I am giving people the fair warning now.

If you want to see what is available without putting your car into this mode, here is a video that I found that goes through some of the features.

 

In case it has a Software Update button, don't press it.

(On an S-Type it clears the firmware then needs new firmware to be loadable from the DVD. If no DVD, no firmware, unit blank.)

 

JagV8, yes, there is a button in there that will allow you to update the software. Granted, you don't "accidentally" press this button. Even if you hit it, it asks you "are you sure?".

 

If you're ever feeling mean you might "enjoy" the regular trickle of owners who select it despite being told not to and then have no firmware at all...

Usually reloadable with a suitable DVD, when they get one.

 

JagV8, I would be more interested in getting a copy of the software coding and see what sort of "enhancements" I could make. I almost got into computer programming. But the path I was taking, I would be writing this post from Leavenworth Jail.

I normally don't give people instructions on how to purposely damage their stuff (atleast not on purpose). When I do, I am normally there to restore things back to how they were. I know I hate it when people do it to me, so, I try not to be two faced like that. The only exception that I would make is those that have wronged me in a severe way. But, that list of people can't afford a car like ours, so, I just drive by them and honk the horn to watch them get angry with the vehicle that I am driving.

 

I expect jag, navteq et al don't release it.

 

Hi All,

on my X150 and on other modern Jaguars I had, there was a hidden menu to double-check the car mileage via a counter of the navigation system. On the XK, it's accurate to a few kilometers.
Is there anything like this on the X351, I did not see it via this hidden menu.

Thanks,

Thierry