I remember reading a topic on the Russian forum where they say that (at least on their market) this is the recommended frequency of changing the oil on the new boxes with AW1 type of oil.
I don't have at the moment a direct link to that information... If I had had that box with that type of oil I would have been more documented now.... Sorry...

As per the question "when should I be using neutral? At traffic lights etc?", this is from owners manual:




I personally usually put gear to N at traffic lights.

My MY13 handbook mentions that the auto box has a system that reduces drag when stationary. So, even though I'm a bit old school and shift to N when sitting at lights, it probably doesn't save much fuel or wear. MY13 Santorini Black SD4 HSE

How can I tell if I have the newer box? When was it introduced? 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

blacktiger wrote:

My MY13 handbook mentions that the auto box has a system that reduces drag when stationary. So, even though I'm a bit old school and shift to N when sitting at lights, it probably doesn't save much fuel or wear.

That is my understanding - my 5-series has this. And I have been advised that changing to Neutral routinely is actually bad for cars so equipped.

Not sure if you all have the electric park brake, but I assume you know you can manually engaged but that it will automatically disengage when you touch th e throttle. If gentle, this will be nice and smooth. Tickle the throttle when the lights go amaber and it will be fully off by the time green comes.

I use command on B-roads - just avoids that possible mid-corner downshift. The box is pretty good, but not perfect in that regard - I am very fussy mind you. Off road, auto and hill descent control when needed.

Going down hill on road the box does hold gears - you may want to select a lower one with command, but not often is that needed but I rarely need to ride the brakes. There must be an inclinominator in there somewhere.

One bit of advise for green laning - car is very capable, but does not have very tough paint. Sadly, lanes that are challenging enough to be fun are usually narrow enough to scratch your paint. Wife wasn't happy - it's her new car .... Out with the random orbital again but only so often you can do that.

I have just acquired an F2 i6 with the 6 speed auto box - this is not my first auto box so I was a bit surprised at how quickly it downshifted at the slightest incline - is this normal ?

If going uphill, mine (SD4) seems to hang on to a higher gear for quite a bit. What you describe reminds me of a Jeep Grand Cherokee hire car I had in Canada where it was like it didn't know the 3 litre engine had torque so it would scream its head off at the slightest incline. I ended up making use of the manual shift. MY13 Santorini Black SD4 HSE

It may well be that it was used to towing a caravan so expected to change down, the box is semi-intelligent and will learn your driving habits, if bought from an LR ask them to to reset the box to factory settings or do a hard reset yourself my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

dorsetfreelander wrote:

How can I tell if I have the newer box? When was it introduced?

Thanks Dartman and BlackTiger - I'll live with it for a while and then maybe look to do a hard reset - which begs the question how is that done (bought privately). I suppose I was just wondering if this was typical of the i6

A hard reset is disconnecting both battery leads and then holding them together for around 15mins or so. (disconnect - first then + and +first then - when reconnecting. This will allow the gearbox to learn your driving style and adapt changes accordingly. Also wondered if you have had an auto box before as if not you can influence gear changes quite a lot by throttle position. I.E easing back slightly on the throttle can make the box upshift sooner than keeping a steady pressure on the pedal.

Thanks Dondiddy - yes I've had autos for some time now SAAB 9-1, RRS, Jag F Type indeed I'm of an age where I don't intend ever having another manual It's just that the F2 does seem keen to change down at the slightest incline and I was wondering if this is just the way the i6 is "programmed" it's not a big deal as the revs go from say 2K to 2.5K and I guess I should be able to simply select 6th gear manually if needs be. Anyway, thanks for the advice wrt the hard reset !

I had two FL2s. The first had a manual box, my last one was automatic. I'd never go back to manual. One thing that really annoyed me about the manual car is that if you were using cruise control it would drop out if you changed gear. This doesn't happen with the auto. I very rarely used command shift though. Generally the 6 speed auto on the FL2 is quite good at finding the right gear (at least mine was). On the other hand it was sometimes a bit hesitant when moving off from a standstill - annoying at busy roundabouts. Using Sport mode overcomes this problem however.

As you can see below, I've now moved on to a Jaguar - though still with a lot of FL2 DNA in it. Before deciding on the Jaguar, however, I road tested an Evoque auto. The salesman who was accompanying me noticed that I had a tendency to use my left foot for braking in traffic from fairly low speeds (I know, I know). I was a bit disconcerted however when he said I shouldn't do it as it would confuse the gearbox over time! The map is not the territory

2011 TD4 GS Manual - Gone
2014 SD4 XS Auto - Gone
2018 Jaguar E-Pace R-Dynamic 180 AWD

Col1nw3bb wrote:

Generally il pop it in neutral if im stopping for more than 15secs. Keeping drive with foot on brake is causing some wear as you can feel the car pulling to go.

Park is similar to neutral. The difference being a pin pops out and locks the box in place in park so car can not roll forward or back. That being said parking pins can fail and you should use handbrake on steep hills, also practise same caution you would with a manual car, turn wheels to curb etc

Cant comment on the last question. The only green my car sees will be a boggy clay ground and if needed it will get mud and rut and il let autobox sort it out. I only use sport or command shift when im overtaking myself, some on here use it all the time on roads, i cant see why as the auto will still force a downshift if it wants to.

Keeping drive with foot on brake is causing some wear as you can feel the car pulling to go.

Can't honestly see what wear would take place at tickover, after all it's only the oil of the torque converter that will warm slighty, there's no mechanical link. There is a lot less load on the TQ at tickover with brake on than when moving and flooring the accelerator, which is where the car will operate for most of its journey.