I've done it several times and I remember seeing post on it but I don't see my transmission go into 1st gear at a stop. Here is what i do as I am in D and coming to a light I press the + paddle which shows 6th . As i brake for the stop light the trans. down shifts by itself and I watch it go down to 2nd when I stop. I sit at the light and it stays in 2nd. When I start it shifts normally up to 6th. It does it all the time and I can tell the difference if I hit the - paddle while stopped and it goes into 1st. Then it shifts all 6 gears but 1st is pretty quick. It does the same while in DSC and when I use S mode. The old Ferrari 5 sp MT was the same regarding 1st gear as it would wind up to 8K rpm in the blink and was really useless for normal driving. Same with the Jag as in 1st it would wind up to 6500 quickly.

 

Trans will not go into 1st unless you paddle downshift into it. 2nd gear is the default starting gear as it was in the previous generation XK/XKR. This is normal.

 

 

2nd is not the default starting gear in auto shift, unless you select Winter Mode - I've checked this out with Jaguar. In fact, the TCM will select 1st or 2nd depending on a number of factors, including your driving style (they're a bit vague on what the parameters are).

Everything is different when you switch to manual mode, because the assumption is that you will control up- & downshifts. However, if you neglect to downshift, the TCM will do it for you to avoid stalling. It will only do this as far as 2nd, because the car is able to pull away in 2nd without stalling. It is not because 2nd is the best gear for acceleration from rest, it's just the lowest that it needs to avoid a stall.

 

There are so many threads about this that I can't understand why this keeps coming up, and why this myth gets perpetuated!!

 

Jagtoes stated that when he is in drive and then paddles as he comes to a stop it will stop in 2nd. That is the default starting gear in manual mode unless you paddle it back to first. You can do it a thousand times and it will always go back to 2nd not 1st. Some myths have some truth to them.

 

I tested this ages ago. It is true that when you are using the paddles, it only comes back to second. But from memory I found that when it stopped in drive, if I pulled the lower gear paddle it wouldn't "bump" into the lower gear (but the gear would come up showing first), whereas if I pulled the upper gear paddle it would bump, then the gear would show second. My conclusion was that it must be sitting in first.


But then someone else put up a screed from some technical bulleting or manual that explained that it does both at different times.

 

It's explicit in the section of the owner's guide on manual shifting:

As soon as jagtoes touches the paddle, he's in manual mode, and the rules change - he's saying "I want to do this myself" and the TCM backs off and lets him get on with it. If he doesn't select 1st, it won't do it for him. If he hadn't touched the paddle, it might have selected 1st, or not, depending on the current shift map & driver adaptations. The problem is: people then assume that 2nd is always the starting gear, whether in auto or manual.

The 6HP boxes are complex beasts; there is very little difference in the operating configuration between 1st & 2nd. One brake releases, another engages, and that's the shift done. It would not surprise me to find that in auto the TCM doesn't actually decide on 1st or 2nd until it sees how hard you hit the throttle, then (within a few tens of milliseconds) it can trigger the correct brake.

As I said, what you're supposed to do is downshift yourself, as you would in a manual car, which means you'd end up in 1st (even if you waited until you were stationary to select it). The automatic downshift is just there to protect you if you forget - in the same way, in D-manual, the TCM will also upshift at the limiter if you forget (it doesn't in S-manual), and in either of the manual modes it won't allow you to up- or downshift if that would result in an under- or over-rev.

Manual mode has some built-in features to protect you and the car, but they appear to be based on minimum intervention. They're not really a substitute for managing gear selection yourself, and they won't give you the optimum selection.

Oh, and just to mess with our heads: kickdown still works in manual mode. So, if you mash the pedal, the TCM will drop down to the lowest permitted gear.

 

There is a video in the Forum somewhere that I can't find, someone left their XKR in D, was at a complete stop and then accelerated moderately while videoing the tachometer; So anyway, you can clearly see the 1-2 shift, the 2-3, the 3-4, 4-5, and not too much longer the 5-6. So yes, his did start in First from a dead stop in Drive.

 

Yup - I think that was u102768. His is a 4.2 so has the 6HP26 'box rather than the 6HP28 used in the 5.0, but I've done the same 'change count' in mine.

 

That was indeed me and you can see it here:


I have also used SDD on my car with the display gear metric showing and was able to watch it drop in to 1st when the car came to a halt so for me there is no question that the 4.2L XKR's will generally drop in to first in 'D' when at a standstill.

I say generally because as Ngarara mentioned he was told by Jaguar that under certain circumstances it may pull away in 2nd but I certainly didn't witness that when I was playing.

 

Yep, that's really annoying in the 4.2 models as we weren't given the "dynamic sport" mode of the 5.0L cars, which prevents kickdown. Also, it will upshift at redline so you can never bounce off the rev limiter. Irritating!

At least you can prevent the kickdown by avoiding going past the "detent" in the throttle pedal travel--the pedal position where you will enable a kickdown is pretty obvious.

 

Sorry, I must have misread what you and jagtoes said. Other people in other threads suggested that in auto mode, the transmission always starts in 2nd. This is false. If that's not what you said I apologize.

 

I'm confused. If you are in manual mode, starting from a stop (in 2nd or 1st), how come the car upshifts all the way up to 6th gear when you get going? Are you hitting the paddles?

The manual mode does time out in D. I believe if you don't hit any paddles for 30 seconds in the 4.2 it will revert back to automatic shifting. Or if you hold the right shift paddle for a few seconds it will go back to automatic shifting (and the gear numbers will disappear from the instrument cluster). But I'm not sure about the 5.0!

 

I was saying in D mode while coasting to a stop pull the + paddle and what the transmission downshift by itself until you stop. It goes from 6 to 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 and stays there when I am at a stop light. When I accelerate it starts with the 2 lite on the dash. Also when I start up and back out of the garage and take off in D it will shift all 6 gears. I can feel them and 1st goes quick.

 

That's right, in "D" (no paddles) you can see the tacho blip at the gear change at about 15kph, from memory (maybe 10mph), which is the first to second shift.

 

In a 5.0 in D-manual, the TCM will upshift at the limiter, so it behaves like a very high-revving auto. In S-manual, it won't upshift, it just flashes the LCD panel amber to tell you to do it. D-manual cancels if you don't use the paddles and drive at a steady speed; S-manual, a.k.a. "permanent manual mode", doesn't.

In a 4.2, the book says the TCM will always upshift at the limit in either D-manual or S-manual (I can't verify this, as I don't have a 4.2).

Both gearboxes allow kickdown to override current gear selection. On further reflection, I guess that means: if you're in manual and you've allowed the box to auto shift down to 2nd when you stop, and then you boot it, it will probably drop to 1st in response.

 

As I hadn't checked my ODB codes for a little while I got my SDD PC out today. Whilst it was out I did a quick video of the gear changes in my 07 XKR which you can see here:


Apologies for the shaking and the music (it sounded a lot better in the car!).

The first two runs are from stationary in D. Starting in 1st I accelerated through a few gears then let the car slow down to 0 kh/h. You can see the car drop back to 1st.

I then flicked the gear lever over to sports mode and did the same and it also dropped back in to 1st as I came to a halt.

I then pulled on the right paddle to put the car in to 2nd, accelerated through the gears manually changing to 5th and let the car come to halt again but letting it change the gears and it ended up in 2nd.

Lastly I just flicked the gear lever back to drive and it dropped in to 1st.

 

Think that nails it...