5SFE suddenly running rough, 5SFE started running rough and now can barely run at all Options

[CosaChow]

Driving home from work the other day the car made a strange noise, possibly a backfire or something then started running real rough. A minute later the CEL came on (P0302). I did a tuneup, new plugs, wires, cap/rotor and if anything it ran worse. There was a small amount of oil in the distributor housing but nothing significant. Thanks to Richee3 for helping me continue troubleshoot we confirmed that we had spark on cylinder two, and the car ran the same with or without that plug wire connected. I then ran it for a minute with cylinder two plug removed to see if it was getting fuel. It seemed like it wasn't, so Richee3 kindly sent me an OEM fuel injector (plus some sweet chrome door strikers). Last night I swapped the injector and also replaced the valve cover gasket, spark plug tube gaskets, PCV valve and grommet. Unfortunately this hasn't helped the issue, it runs even rougher now and I can barely get it to idle for more than a second or two. I'm running out of ideas and may have to bite the bullet and get it towed to the shop. I thought I'd check here before doing that in a day or two. Any other thoughts on what could cause the issue?

[RocketScott]

Might have jumped a tooth on the timing belt?

I've never had that happen so I can't say exactly what the symptoms would be.

I'd check the timing.

[94yotaGT]

Eh when I got my celica it was a tooth or two out of time and she would idle rough every now and then or idle too high, had valve tap bad too. So I wanna say that isn't likely to be it. But I could be wrong.

[CosaChow]

I did some more work and got it going tonight! I think one of the connections to or from the distributor wasn't fully seated as I removed them and reseated them as well as the connections from the electronics that the center wire of the distributor come from. It smoked a bit but then cleared up and ran smoothly. No more CEL!

[Smaay]

did you ever check the code?

chances are the ECU was not seeing the G1 or the NE signal from the dizzy

[CosaChow]

The original code was a P0302 but I didn't check it after it was originally thrown as it wasn't running well enough to drive down to the parts store (I don't have my own reader).

[94yotaGT]

Not sure what year your Celi is, but if it is like my 94 you have OBDI. Good luck finding a auto parts store that offers OBDI checking. In Decatur, IL out of all the stores none had it. What you do is take an unpainted paper clip and bend it out so that it's straightish. Pop your hood and near the driver side back corner of the bay there will be a flip top for the diagnostics port. Pop one end of the clip into te1 and one into e1. Get in your car and turn the ignition on and your CEL should start flashing.

Toyota Celica 94-95 trouble codes

Good luck!