wierd problems smell/sound

[denisond3]

What you can see as soon as you open the hood - is the serpentine belt. The timing belt is hidden behind the black plastic cover at the passenger-side end of the engine.
And since your car has a.c. - there are two pulleys that might be worn, (the bearings inside them worn that is). The tensioner pulley can be seen by looking down just aft of the reservoir for the power steering fluid; and under the tensioner arm itself. On my Escort, when the engine is running the tensioner doesnt jiggle at all, and to the extent I can see the pulley, it is rotating smoothly - not wobbling or otherwise seeming to be eccentric.
I think that visible movement of the tensioner is a sign of a worn/bad serpentine belt, a bent pulley, or other problem. (I carry a spare serpentine belt in the trunk anyway).
The other pulley (the idler) can barely be seen, by looking down in front of the alternator, and lower than the power steering pump. You can only see a small bit of it. It can be seen from below IF the splash shield is off.
Both pulleys are replaceable, and neither one will last forever. I think the idler pulley costs about $30 USD. The tensioner would cost about $50 USD, but if you only need the pulley, thats also about $30. Sometimes you need the whole tensioner, sometimes only a new pulley. The bottom 'idler pulley' bolt will probably be very tight, so use a 6 point wrench on it. I used a '6 point offset box end wrench'. It may be 16mm, but I forget.
And you would have to remove the serpentine belt to replace either pulley.
If the pulley you are talking about is the bottom-most one; that is the crankshaft pulley, really a two part item, as its inner section mounts to the crankshaft, and its outer section, which has the grooves for the serpentine belt, mounts to the inner section with a layer of rubber in between, and serves as the vibration damper - to dampen the torsional vibration of the crankshaft at high rpm. If that pulley is doing anything other than spinning absolutely evenly - then you have a very rare failure; a bad vibration damper. Replacing that would require undoing the motor mount on that side, to let the engine droop down an inch or two, plus removing the serpentine belt.