Past 2 weeks, I've been using the J-gate shifter in 4th for all local driving under 50, and even keeping in 3 for side street low speed zones under 30.
Of course, I flip over to "D" when I hit around 50mph

I like to amount of torque and control I have.

Am I doing anything wrong by doing this?

 

I sure hope not...as I have been doing somewhat similar for the almost a year now...ever since had a TCM failure where I get surging as if it is shifting back and forth between 5th and 6th.
I have been putting the shifter in either 4th or 5th depending upon the speed and keeping the trans out of 6th for local driving.
And yes the torque is nice.

 

I only have 5 speeds on my 98 xk8
I noticed a tendency for "D" to kick into 5th a bit early, resulting in a flat spot in acceleration.
A brief search told me this is somewhat common.
By using the J Gate, it allows me to keep control of the torque and res through the gears.
Makes sense to me,.... However, this is my first go round with this car.

 

I agree, you are ok. I remember reading once that the car is designed to shift itself into 5th if you leave it in 4th for more than 30minutes at speeds above 105 mph. You can't quote me on the exact numbers, read it last year in either the shop manual or my owners manual, but I am close. I remember thinking "oh to have such problems" - never going to come up in New Jersey.

I do wish we could select and lock in 1st gear. They had that on my 1988 Mustang. After a tranny repair I lost that lock out. Turns out the shop rebuilt it using parts from Fords police package. The cops were burning out so many transmissions winding out in 1st, that Ford disabled the 1st gear lock out on all the police transmission packages. I bet that's probably why we don't get 1st gear selection on our cats.

John

 

You wont hurt the trans. but it's a waste of your time IMO. I drive mine in Sport mode 50% of the time in town to have more throttle response. The manual side of the J gate's benefit is coming down a hill. It enables you to use a lower gear rather than the brakes. 90% of the time it should be left in D as per the owners manual.To each his own!

 

The car was built to be run in both modes, manual and auto. It doesn't hurt it at all. Using manual will allow you to rev the engine higher (usually means your in a higher part of the HP curve) than even in Sports mode or normal.
You can have quite some fun using it.

 

Tried it today on my xkr, I prefer to leave it alone. Reminds me too much of my need for a stick shift, to much slushiness in manual mode for me

 

the moment i realized the J-gate doesnt actually hold any 1 specific gear, i stopped using it and just kept the car in sport. i got the same results

 

I'm surprised that no one mentioned downshifting into corners. I like it best for that, those corners where I know I'm going to push the limits a bit.

John

 

I find it most useful to prevent the tranny from automatically upshifting into 5th prematurely.
I noticed on more than one occasion the car would go into 5th and hit a "flat spot" on torque.
Driving in 4th prevents this and allows me to use 5th as needed.

 

I do it all the time, especially when my exhausts are open. on relatively low speed roads I keep it in second and it sounds incredible - both on the way up and even better back down the revs again. I would imagine the same effect would be had from any exhaust that is audible. Response is great around 3-4k rpm.

There is a huge difference between doing this and using sport mode. I'd swear it's perked my D mode up a bit too.

 

It's perked your "D" Mode up because you're using it at higher revs.
That's precisely my point.
I'd find myself occasionally going into 5th under 2k rpm's at speeds I really should be in 4th.
If you do a search this is very common and people have complained about this.

 

I long ago got into the habit of just keeping the level in 4 while driving around locally in traffic. "Manually" shifting the trans on this vehicle is less exciting than pretty much any auto-trans vehicle I have ever owned given the slushiness of the shifts. The car seems to slide into gears versus actually shifting.

Doug

 

The ECU is attempting to get to 5th to get better mileage. Yes there will be a "flat spot" that's overdrive! Again to each his own. The original post was "will it hurt the trans", NO! It's probably my age! But I've had the Bucket Tee's with 327's and 5 speeds, Corvettes, Road Runners, Chargers and Z28's. So I use the left side to keep from gaining speed on a down hill drive. I eliminated the rear most mufflers so I like how it sounds in SPORT.

 

Mine has been in sport+4 for most of its life.

I only hit the highway every couple of months so
I have sometimes forgotten to slide it into "D" after
the on-ramp.