Mine shifts fine. If anything, the throw is long for me and I will likely install a Steeda short shift bracket in the near future.

Since you seem to be new at driving manual, maybe have a more experienced driver test drive it for you and see if they feel like something is wrong.

 

The ST manual is not the easiest.
The throws are long and the 'gates' can provide some resistance.

My advice: Shift slowly and deliberately and get the feel for the gates. More rpm's always helps also. Get some rhythm, and then start to shift a little quicker til you smooth it out. Kind of like dancing, take your time and it should improve.

Cold Clutches are never any fun on any car. Grabby, abrupt until warm, so go easy cold.
This car has a longer warm-up cycle than most cars due to the 5.7qts of oil, on warm up if you rev it a little to 3500+ ON A LIGHT LOAD(light throttle, no boost gauge movement) that will aid with warm-up, more so for the engine than the trans.

But listen to the next poster who thinks mine is totally wrong!

 

Like Steve said, more rpms help. Check out some rev matching videos for helping with your downshifts.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

It is worrying how you say "grinding" and "getting worse" . It should not grind into gear. And it shouldn't take you several tries to get into gear if you are really driving it as gently as you say. Get it checked out.
I bought mine with 4k mikes on the clock. The previous owner complained of grinding into gear as you describe and the dealer replaced the transaxle. Good luck to you.

 

This is also my first manual car, not just daily driver but first manual ever. I learned with this car so I've had many stalls and miss-shifts through my learning period. But I've never experienced a "grinding" or having the shifter get it stuck when downshifting while properly engaging the clutch, which it seems you are. The only time I have problems shifting gears is when I don't have the clutch pressed down all the way, but you'll obviously know when it happens. Even if you don't match the rpm's when going at speed, the car will give you a jerk but it should still allow the shift when as you engage the clutch. Try having someone else drive the car and see if they feel anything strange downshifting and if they do, get it checked out.

 

I'm definitely going to get someone else to try it out. But it's hard because it really only happens when it's cold. Was doing it again this morning. I've figured out what it feels like. It's like a rapid bumping through the shifter. It's not bumps in the road as I'm going really slow but unless I'm dead stopped, it bumps rapidly through the gear shift and has a lot of resistance until the tranny warms up. I don't think it's anything to do with the clutch as this is completely when it's disengaged. I'm not talking about jerking when downshifting and anything to do with the engine. It's completely transaxle. I'm taking it in soon for the TSB so I'll get them to check it out at the same time. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and insight.

 

Just a reminder to help avoid misunderstandings:

Clutch engaged = pedal up
Clutch disengaged = pedal down

 

Also dont forget. the brake pedal and clutch pedal need to be used at the same time when braking to a complete stop, otherwise you will stall the motor. this advice is for beginners, the rest of us(or at least i do) downshift til we come to complete stop.

Below is an educational video on how to shift...not granny shifting!

 

Try rev matching and see how it goes in. Also, I never shift into first unless the car is barely crawling or stopped. It's good practice not to.

 

Agreed, 1st is so short on this car that the syncros are working really hard to match you going 2-1 at anything faster than a crawl.

If you want more life out of your clutch and are downshifting on a regular basis rev matching is a very valuable skill to learn.