1999 SL2 info

My son an I just purchase an 1999 SL 2. It is a very clean car with 81,000 miles. The only thing I really found wrong with it is the manual tranny will not shift into 1st until you are almost stopped. I took the chance of it being only a quirk that you can live with. The person we bought from Just replace the oil pan gasket. It was leaking oil profusely. I felt the car was price fairly well with this in mine. Can anybody chime in on the car. Is it a fairly decent car? Parts easy to get? What are it's issues? I should have inquiried this info before the purchase.

Brian

I had a 1996 SL that I loved ! The only reason I don't have it still is I was rear ended at a red light and the car was totaled . Have you checked your shift linkage ? That could be the cause of your problem !

Not being able to shift into first until stopped is normal.

Should it grind or just not let you shift?

It shouldn't grind, sounds like your clutch isn't engaging all the way, the hydraulics usually get weak on these vehicle, I had to change mine for the same reason, and it worked great after that

The First gear is quite hard to access with these cars especially with a SOHC tranny since the ratios between 1st and 2nd are very large. You must really rev your engine inorder to be at an rpm that the synchros will actually work with.

So this is essentially normal as long as this is the only situation that getting into first gear is tough