Toyota Repair: 96 Corolla, fe engine, intermittent problems

Question
My 96 Corolla has a 4A-FE engine which I drove for the past 10 years with no problems. Lately, I've been having intermittent problems with it. Sometimes it will not start. You can crank the engine but it will not fire up. I had the spark plugs, rotor, and distributor cap replaced but it didn't do any good. I was getting spark on all 4 plugs. Had a mechanic measure the fuel pressure and it was getting about 45 PSI. If I get the engine to start, the check engine light turns ON. When I brought it to the dealer, the they said the error code was P1300 - Igniter Mulfunction and they reset the ECU to turn off the check engine light. The other problem is that the engine will sometimes just die out while I'm driving. It will take several attempts to get the engine started. Once the engine starts normally, the check engine light would turn ON. I brought the car to a different shop to pull the trouble code again to see if this was something new. But their scanner was pulling P1300 - Ignition Misfire. Would appreciate any advise on what could be causing these problems. Thank you.


Answer
Noel,

I would suggest replacing both the igniter and ignition coil.  It may be cheaper to get a used distributor out of a junk yard.  If the computer does not see a spark conformation signal (known as IGF on Toyota) it will shut off the injectors so the engine doesn't load up on fuel. That IGF signal comes from the igniter and coil.