I have a 96 Accord w/ a 2.2L vtec and 5 speed manual transmission w/ 151,000 on it. The other day it started making a noise that sounds like rubbing to pieces of sandpaper together or maybe it could sound like a lot of air being sucked in. The guy I bought it from said that he put a new clutch in it not long before I bought it. I did replace the timing belt on it a few weeks ago and now the crank sensor is throwing a code but I don't think that has anything to do with it since that has been on for a couple of weeks now. I'm thinking either the clutch is not grabbing 100% and spinning making this sound and not transferring all the power to the wheels or maybe a vacuum leak somewhere. I only have this problem when the engine and transmission is under a load. When the trans is in neutral the engine seems to run and accelerate just fine. I put the car up on stands last night and put the trans in first gear and couldn't really hear it. Please help.

 

if the clutch wasn't grabbing, your rpms would go up and you wouldn't gain speed.

 

Ya, the rpm's don't really go up that fast. The more I press on the gas pedal the louder the noise gets the rpm's don't really increase that fast and the car really doesn't accelerate that fast. I only hear this noise while I am accelerating. When I let off the gas the noise goes away but as soon as I give it more gas the noise comes right back.