I was told by a Jag repair shop that selecting Sport shifting mode you decreased the transmission life. Then I heard that while in sport mose it shifted firmer with LESS slippage consequently causing LESS wear on the internals. I am now truly confounded. I have 104k on car and am ready to do a fluid change. Any thoughts, ideas and comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

I am going to take a wild guess and say that I suspect that the life of the transmission would be more based on how hard you push it rather than which mode you choose to use.

If you select sport mode and come away from every red light like a teenager and running the rpm up to nearly redline, I would expect that to put more wear on the transmission than if you selected the regular mode and came away from red lights like a normal driver.

I would suspect that the opposite would also be true, that, regardless of the mode you select, if you are always making the transmission shift in a high rpm, high stress mode then you are putting more wear on it.

The great thing about this forum is that you will most likely get some replies from some actual experts, which I am not. They may even contradict me, but, such is life.

I don't care what kind of car you have, if you drive it really hard, you will wear things out a lot faster than if you drive it moderately. I'll stick with that view.

Of course, I did not really comprehend that when I was a youngster. I drove my cars really hard, and kept wondering why things kept breaking and wearing out.

 

On the basis of well known fundamentals of the operation of automatic transmissions, you are correct and they are wrong.

 

I rarely drive aggressively and, with my style of driving at least, I have never felt ANY difference between having sport mode on or off. The light on the switch goes on which I assume confirms that sport mode is engage but I certainly cannot tell a difference.

On the other hand my wife's 2012 Acura TL has a normal or sport position and I definitely feel the difference, even with my gentle driving--throttle seems more responsive from a stop and engine revs higher before shifting.


Doug

 

I always use sport mode in both our XK8 and X-Type and have since we bought them. There's no problem with using sport mode and abnormal wear and tear will come with how you drive. If you are always hard on the throttle and abuse them the won't last just like any other car.

 

You need to drive your car hard on a regular basis... I can definitely tell the difference. With sport mode on, it shifts at higher RPM. It is also less likely to shift when you're aggressively braking and accelerating. If I step on it and then let go, my car won't downshift until it's certain that I won't stomp on it again.


Of course, that's true to some point, but XK's are designed as performance cars, not economy cars. Pushing an XK isn't going to be as bad as pushing a Geo Metro to the same extent.

 

Then my already dismal gas mileage will be even more dismal. My old Corvette with a 5.7 liter engine easily got at least 15mpg with the city street driving that I do but even with my very mild driving the XKR maybe gets 14 or so mpg.

Doug

 

My two cents: these cars "learn" how you drive and program themselves accordingly. I did a hard reset at the battery and drove more aggressively over one weekend and the difference in both sport & normal could be felt. Might be time to do that again. It seems to be a little less responsive these days.

Also you should be getting better mileage. I drive mine to work every day thru stoplight city street traffic and routinely get 17mpg.

 

Mike--I will try and drive more aggressively for a while and see what happens. I suspect your 17mpg might be partly due to it being an XK8 versus XKR. When I hit the freeway and am rolling the mileage is more like 24 to 26 mpg and on the streets once I am rolling it is also more like 16 or 17 mpg. The problem is getting these heavy cars rolling. My drive to and from work is only 3 miles with lots of stops and heavy traffic. Still in those conditions mileage was much better from the Corvette. My wife has essentially the same commute and the mileage she gets from her 2012 Acura TL (with a 3.5 liter engine having about the same horsepower as an XK8) is routinely 18-19 mpg.

Doug

 

Doug,

You could be right about the NA vs. supercharger. My drive is just over 6 miles, also with lots of stoplights. I would say traffic is medium to heavy depending on day and whether or not school is in session (two school zones act as chicanes for the drive).

The other mpg figures just about match mine. I have adjusted the throttle cable, cleaned the MAF & throttle body, plus always use premium gas. Combined, these fixes all helped my original mpg.

 

As to the original question of sport mode or not, I would agree with the majority here. Parts longevity has more to do with driving style and general maintenance than with which mode is used.

I switch to sport frequently on the weekends or at night when I'm solo. That style of more spirited driving is why I bought the XK8 in the first place.

My experience is that the car seems to run better and need less fiddling when driven often and at least occasionally with some added speed. Doing so with the top down should at least increase my own longevity!

 

Just so it is clear I am not an old fuddy-duddy, I did NOT buy the car for gas mileage. For me it really doesn't matter that much given the low amount of miles I drive a year. Still I was surprised on just how lousy the street mileage is. Unfortunately, I tend to drive my cars almost like an old lady and rarely get aggressive. I should probably force myself to put more foot into the pedal since it is probably better for the car.

Doug

 

I know mileage isnt the primary focus of this thread, but since it is mentioned...I get 23mpg around town in sport and I think it is better than non sport mode because I am not stepping on the pedal as far down to make the car go due to later shift points in sport mode...and yesterday drove from St. Augustine FL to Atlanta and back (long 13 hours but a nice drive) and got 28mpg. At one point after I filled up, I saw my range at 509 miles, the highest I ever have seen it on this car in the 2-1/2 years I have owned it.

 

The 6spd seems to help quite a bit with mileage. I see 23ish in town too, even with the S/C version.

 

I have seen a few threads on this subject and there seem to be a wide range of opinions.
Here's my 2¢ worth.

I use sport mode 90% of the time. I use it for slowing down from speed to assist in breaking as I feel it helps give life to the pads and rotors, I also sometimes use it in traffic, starting off and slowing down, in fact more like a manual transmission.
I have never had a problem and it has never made an unusual noise or missed a beat.
I would hope that in a car or this caliber and price the transmission can and needs to be used without concern and should take the use without a problem..........unless it is abused of course.
I also like spirited driving when I get the chance. On winding roads I put it through its paces and use it exactly like a manual. Its really cool.
Is this not why the 6 speed has all those numbers on the left hand side of the J Gate.

Anyhow, I am going to use mine without worrying about it but then again I don¹t abuse it.
I do use the D mode but only on freeways and when I¹m crusing........mainly to increase the gas milage.

Oh yes, gas milage.
I just went a 650 mile road trip and averaged 27.5 miles per gal. no freeways but all good driving roads. I was quite happy with that for the 4.2SC in my XKR..........I usually average around 21+ in the city and always use premium gas.

I bought the car to drive it, drove 30,000km this year and loved every second of it and take it out every chance I can.

BTW
I also use the transmission in my Range Rover the same way.
On road, off road and towing a trailer...........no problems there either.
230,000 km on it so far and 127,000km on my XKR.

I hope I have not put a jinx my good fortune by writing this......its all good.

Keep the shiny side up.

Allan

 

I just meant that you need to use common sense when driving it. There's a big difference between driving hard and just plain abuse. Most of our cars came with a bunch of miles on them so we don't know how they were treated before we got them.
If I can force myself to be conservative I can get 15mpg in town and 25mpg hiway. Best I've done so far was 340 mile round trip on one tank full. But in the real world like many I didn't buy it for saving gas. I bought it to have fun so I'm more likely to get 8 to 10mpg city, I like to leave people setting at the lights which tends to suck up the gas. I'm just a 74 year old kid at heart. I even do this stuff with the X-type some times.

 

I average 13-15 mpg when I'm driving aggressively in the city. That was in either my 97 XK8 or 05 XKR. I can get upwards 17 city and 24 highway, but I have to drive like a granny.

I probably could get 20mpg-ish city, but I'm not gonna drive my XKR like that. If I'm gonna drive like that it'll be in my 7.4L Suburban K2500, which I average 8-9 mpg.