[ZeusHorkios]

The owner's manual says that we should have shift lights when using sport manual mode.

I don't see any such lights on the instrument cluster or on the head-up display in sport view.

Any other setting that I might have missed to activate them?

[ryo-]

I have my HUD in adaptive mode or w/e it's called and I see the shift lights while in sport manual. it's on top of your RPM gauge (in HUD) and is a red bar that closes in from the outside to the middle as you hit redline.

[jayritchie]

Originally Posted by ZeusHorkios

The owner's manual says that we should have shift lights when using sport manual mode.

I don't see any such lights on the instrument cluster or on the head-up display in sport view.

Any other setting that I might have missed to activate them?

As far as I’m aware there’s no settings to enable or disable.

Like you said, the gearbox needs to be in manual mode and the drive mode sport. The shift lights appear in the instrument cluster approaching 5000+ rpm. If you have the tacho in the HUD, shift lights show in that too.

[Aramis1919]

Originally Posted by ZeusHorkios

The owner's manual says that we should have shift lights when using sport manual mode.

I don't see any such lights on the instrument cluster or on the head-up display in sport view.

Any other setting that I might have missed to activate them?

My 2023 M240i X-Drive has them.

They start yellow from both sides of the rev counter and turn red as they meet in the centre.

[steelatx]

Originally Posted by jayritchie

As far as I’m aware there’s no settings to enable or disable.

Like you said, the gearbox needs to be in manual mode and the drive mode sport. The shift lights appear in the instrument cluster approaching 5000+ rpm. If you have the tacho in the HUD, shift lights show in that too.

In idrive 7 you can enable the shift lights in the HUD. If you have 7 I can provide instructions. For 8, I'm not sure.

[Bandit009]

Originally Posted by ZeusHorkios

The owner's manual says that we should have shift lights when using sport manual mode.

I don't see any such lights on the instrument cluster or on the head-up display in sport view.

Any other setting that I might have missed to activate them?

If you’re in manual mode and driving hard you will see yellow bars, then red bars as you approach redline on the dash. Have to be in manual mode and not shifting early. I never noticed lights in HUD. I will double check that.

[Bandit009]

Originally Posted by ZeusHorkios

The owner's manual says that we should have shift lights when using sport manual mode.

I don't see any such lights on the instrument cluster or on the head-up display in sport view.

Any other setting that I might have missed to activate them?

Ok, just took my car out and checked this. If you’re in D and you hit the panels and now in M mode (manual) the shift lights will NOT come on. That was a surpise to me. I was going to what I thought was close to redline and no lights.

However, put the transmission selector in the center console to S mode by pulling back once more after in D and then use the paddles now you’re in full manual mode. The transmission will not revert back to drive (D) automatically. It will stay manual. In this mode the shift lights show on the dash and on the HUD. You have to be in “sport view” on the HUD. You can barely seem them in the HUD, but they will display - yellow, red bars as you reach rev limits. And also display on the dash screen.

[kimber_92663]

Please pardon my ignorance but shift lights are only for cars with M Steptronic Transmission or will this be visble in 6MT cars as well? Thanks!

[PRINCE THUNDERNIGHT]

Kinda shocked that folks don’t know when to manually shift… listen to the car. Learn the powerband.

[NoNameG42]

Originally Posted by PRINCE THUNDERNIGHT

Kinda shocked that folks don’t know when to manually shift… listen to the car. Learn the powerband.

It kinda depends on what car we were coming from, the learning curve could be steep/ier for some and with pumped-in sound it can also further muddled the situation, so some visual aid doesn’t hurt.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by PRINCE THUNDERNIGHT

Kinda shocked that folks don’t know when to manually shift… listen to the car. Learn the powerband.

And if you are deaf

It’s just a bit of a gimmick. You have a rev counter which essentially does the same thing.

[JoeyJoeJo]

I'd be surprised if many actually uses shift lights as a trigger to shift, it's experience augmentation to add to the "sportiness".
Might be some value in keeping shift lights in your eyeline in motorsport with ear plugs, helmet, radio etc (which is why they have them) but average joe, not so much

[danallxt]

Originally Posted by PRINCE THUNDERNIGHT

Kinda shocked that folks don’t know when to manually shift… listen to the car. Learn the powerband.

I really did not interpret the OP or anyone replying that they were relying on shift lights for when to shift, rather he was simply inquiring if in fact they do function as indicated in the manual, just a simple question. Kinda of a leap to infer he did not know when/how to shift.

[PRINCE THUNDERNIGHT]

That’s a fair comment, but I wasn’t actually suggesting OP didn’t know how to shift.

More an observation on folks in general that can’t drive a manual (given that what, 99% of cars sold here are autos?) and that car manufacturers have to provide gimmicks to make these folks feel like they know what they’re doing.

No offense intended to OP.

[jayritchie]

Originally Posted by kimber_92663

Please pardon my ignorance but shift lights are only for cars with M Steptronic Transmission or will this be visble in 6MT cars as well? Thanks!

Topher video on YouTube - M2 6MT with shift lights

Originally Posted by JoeyJoeJo

I'd be surprised if many actually uses shift lights as a trigger to shift, it's experience augmentation to add to the "sportiness".

This. Shift lights are so fun. I find myself revving the car out to the rev limiter more often just because of the lights.

[ggggbmw]

Originally Posted by PRINCE THUNDERNIGHT

Kinda shocked that folks don’t know when to manually shift… listen to the car. Learn the powerband.

I only run full manual shift on track. And yes, just listening and knowing the car and track, I generally know exactly when to shift.

But, there are times when stuck in heavy traffic, behind really loud cars, when I could really use shift lights as a reminder. Paying attention to the traffic and their pace disrupts the usual shift routine, and if the car is loud I can't hear my car at all. (I'm especially looking at the '74 911 with straight pipes I'm often stuck behind.) So many times in that situation I'll suddenly feel the car stop accelerating. It's almost like hitting the brakes when it hits the rev limiter. I'll have a brief sense of panic that something is wrong with the car, and then "DOH! Moron! You need to shift!".

So yeah, having some shift lights in the HUD could be really useful at times.

And yeah, kind of blingy too.

[ZeusHorkios]

Originally Posted by danallxt

I really did not interpret the OP or anyone replying that they were relying on shift lights for when to shift, rather he was simply inquiring if in fact they do function as indicated in the manual, just a simple question. Kinda of a leap to infer he did not know when/how to shift.

This. Thank you!

My sole purpose of asking the question was to make sure that the lights function as indicated in the manual. I do know when to shift having driven manual cars before this purchase.

The M240i being my first luxury manufacturer car, I am simply very curious about learning/trying all available functionality that were not in my previous regular (basic) cars.

Also for those curious, I had all the settings set correctly. I was just shifting before they could appear. Once I took the revs to 5500+, the shift lights showed up on the dash.

[pw4]

I always drive in sport manual mode (except in occasional stop-start traffic). I find the dash shift lights useful on "spirited" drives when I use a few more revs than intended (I mainly stay in the engine's max torque band). They surprised me when I first saw them - I didn't know I had them.
OTOH I find the shift lights in the sports HUD (OS8) as useless as the sports HUD itself. I want a rev counter there, not some weird, reflected polygons.
I more often use the rev counter to keep revs low on cold starts and only the dash counter is usable for that. And the HUD one is too imprecise to use for high revs.