Is there an article or manual that can explain to me how these work? I touched them accidentely the other day while in automatic and, well, I don,t think that was the right thing to do...I want to fully understand how these work and the owners manual is not very helpful. Tks to anyone that can refer me to a reliable source of information.

 

Mine is an '08 but, the shifting should work the same way for yours.

Basically, if you touch the paddles while in "D" you will get a downshift or an upshift, depending on which paddle you touched. If not touched again for a period of time, something close to 20 seconds, it will automatically go back into fully auto mode.

If you place the transmission into S mode, you have a choice to let the car do its own auto shifting in performance mode (DS) or, you can switch to manual shifting by actuating one of the paddles. In the S mode the transmission will remain in manual once you made your first manual shift and will not automatically return into Auto mode. You will have to place the shifter back into D mode for auto shifting to resume.

Albert

 

Or of course you can hold down the up shift paddle for over 3 seconds to revert to full automatic mode. At least that's the case for my 2010 model, guessing the same for your 2009.

Skeeter

 

Thank you, but say I'm going 80km/hr on D and come to a steep negative hill can I just flick the minus paddle then start retro grading instead of braking on the way down ? Will that initial shift from automatic to manual not dammage the motor ? Or will I just go from D to 4th speed on manual ?

 

You can do anything you want with the paddles without issue. You will never be able to do anything to cause damage with them. The computers just wont let you do it.

 

Mine's an 08 too. I've found it not so easy to use the engine for braking like that (say on a long downhill gradient) as when you drop a gear with the paddle from auto, the car blips the throttle to match revs, so you often end up actually accelerating a little bit, at least momentarily.

I guess I'll learn to adapt but its certainly not as predictable as a 'proper' manual. I still prefer systems that just do what I say without second guessing me.

It would also help if the engine noise was a little louder so you could more easily hear when to shift rather than have to look at the tach. Maybe thats a good excuse to fit an Arden or similar exhaust.

I guess the risk would be in turning it from a perfect luxury GT into a heavy/average sports car.

 

I've done well going downhill by setting the cruise control to a low speed and letting the car figure it out. Between the gearbox and the throttle it seems to work out...


good luck,

Skeeter

 

See I knew it was a matter of time before they came out with "telepathic paddles" and "voice command shifting"

 

Lol you know what I mean!

Actually you may not be far off (well... maybe not shifting by voice) but I read somewhere (on the internet so it has to be true) that XKs actually have all the tech. already installed for voice control of phone and audio, but the feature was disabled by Jag because the results were too sporadic.

There's also some evidence that there are many programmable user-related options in the ECM that are not accessable via the screen, and may be set to a less-than-optimal way because of retarded US market safety rules.

I'm planning on taking my car to my Jag specialist to see what he can find with his diagnostic computer so we can hopefully tweak some settings to make the car work more usefully. I'm especially hoping there's a (disabled) option for opening/closing the roof using the remote.

I'll let you guys know what we find.

 

it was avail on older Xk's with drivers door lock global open function. I think youde have to "engineer" in a multifunction remote and control network interface just like on remote starts. You know it would be nice and you know Jaguar can/could do it. But looking at he overall populace, and the software issues out in the market already. I think its would be pandoras box to allow too much. We do SOOOOO much now days with software changes and have to fix issues with "AS BUILT" software changes. doing something cool like this could just open that much more potenitlal software issues. BUT that being said. theres alot of internal rumors and talk about Jaguar becoming much larger, much more cool stuff coming to market with cars and tech. Already you see stuff in the pipeline and training and internal issues llike SDD, problem reporting, tech help etc... is beginnning to change for the better. The feeling is from Jaguar that "We want to step out in the market in a bigger, better way and only with the proper training, support, and retention of our technician base will we be able to service what we produce" It USED to be a bunch of talk, now we actually SEE the changes coming out..So time will tell

 

Skeeter,

You are correct. My 2009 works the same way.

Stuart

 

JustNiz,
If you find out how to adjust the ECU for speedo gearing please let me know......

Thanks, Adrian

 

I believe on the XF the dealer can program the paddle shifters to only operate when in Sport Mode. Don't know if this also applies to the XK.