I drove to work today and just after I got close to there, my car starting making a moaning sound. It's RPM dependant and the sound is very pronounced at idle. If I rev the engine up about 1500-2000 RPM, it's hardly noticeable, but at idle it's there. No warning lamps have come on, the A/C still works fine, the car shifts fine, power steering works fine. When I opened the window, I noticed a horrible burning stench from the front. I popped the hood open and the engine idled along fine smoothly all the belts are still there, but that horrible smell still there. It smelled like rubber burning, but also not that different from brakes burning up. I didn't see any leaks under the car.

Any ideas?

 

possibly a bad bearing on one of your idler pulleys for the water pump or AC compressor...

 

I took it in to the local dealer. They did an inspection on the car, but couldn't find anything wrong after driving it numerous times. They didn't charge me anything for it, which was the good.

I drove home and there was slight moaning coming from the engine, but very very slight now. It disappears after 1000 RPM.

This is just a guess, but would a broken engine mount do something like this?

All the belts after looking over, once again looked fine. The timing belt was changed 27K miles ago.

No burning smell any more either...

 

I am with Matt, check the bearings on the idler pulleys