car starts and dies :/ Options

[02bluerolla]

Iam helping a friend out with a 97 Celica 2.2 5spd problem. His girl was driving to work and the car suddenly stalled and didn't start. He called me to help him check it after they got it towed home. I checked to see if there was any plugs loose or connections disconnected, but everything seemed fine. He mention that when it rained the car took awhile to start it would crank but no start. The first thing I did was put some starting fluid to see if it would start , and it did for like 2 seconds then dies. It seems to me like it was fuel related so we decided to change the fuel filter. We replaced the fuel filter and the car starts and stays on for like 10 seconds and it dies. If we give it gas while it's on it sounds like its choking and dies. It started to get dark so we left it like that till the next weekend. We are thinking it might be a fuel pump but iam not too convince. What do y'all think? Is there a way to check the pump is good?

[garin]

you should hear a hum when you have the key on the "start" position of the ignition cycle. that is the fuel pump priming. you can crank the car and have someone with listen for the injectors by placing a screwdriver next to each one.

other then that i'd check ignition. like box said look at the distributor. a timing light might help you. trace the problems from the spark plugs to the distributor and coil. toyota coils hardly go bad and there really isnt a great test for them either. good luck.