I'm a longtime 2.5L 98 avenger owner. I've fixed seemingly every problem that could possibly go wrong, but this time I don't know where to start. Driving home the other day the car started hesitating while accelerating. I tried keeping the gas on while braking, but eventually it stalled out about 100 feet from my house. It wouldn't start for a couple minutes, but eventually turned over and limped home(not actually in limp mode...) It died again in the driveway. I let it sit overnight and tried to diagnose the problem in the morning. It starts right up, but it sound horrible, smells bad, and the engine is just not right. The RPMs go up and down while idling and it really just wants to shut off. Its a new transmission, and doesn't seem to have any gear shifting issues. I recently changed the fuel filter and all the belts. The CEL flashed about 4 times on my ride home but went off and hasn't returned. I don't trust it to make it all the way to autozone to check the code. Possibly timing belt/ misfire? I would really appreciate any help you guys can give. My wife's uncle is coming in a couple days to help(he's a mechanic), but I'm sure everyone can understand that I'd rather figure it out on my own...

 

How many miles ??? Last time the Timing belt was Changed ???
You say smells bad smell like burning rubber ???

 

It's 210,000 miles young, changed timing belt about 4 years ago, maybe around 140, 000 miles. The smell is not burning rubber, but more like burning coolant or something. The coolant however is not leaking as far as I can tell.