Misfire in cyl 1, runs like garbage, check engine light, HELP !

[portaman03]

97 Protege 1.5L.

My girl has had the car for just over a year, we bought it with 70k miles it now has 82k.

I changed the spark plugs, wires, dist cap, rotor when we first bought it, but it has always ran kind of sluggish with 20-25mpg. Not that great.

Recently the car threw a CEL and the engine is shaking, sputtering under acceleration and BOGS like a mofo.

Went to autozone to disgnose, cylinder 1 misfire. Pulled the spark plugs, they are all corroded (fouled?).

Changed the plugs and reset the CEL, but its still missing!

What could cause this out of the blue? I am thinking it was always happenning because of the sluggishness, but has now gotten worse and finally triggered the CEL.

What steps can I take from here to fix this issue? I read that I should take the following steps:

plugs
wires
cap
rotor
check compression (what would low compression in cyl 1 tell me?)
check the valve seals???

We need to get her car on the road with school and work, but dont wanna drive it while its misfiring, because I read that can cause serious damage to the engine and converter!

HELP!

[mannydingo]

Crap, could be a bad distributor, period. Don't know what else to tell you. You did the correct thing by changing those parts first, though. Make sure you're seating the wire correctly.

[sanblaster]

I had that same code pop up a few months ago. I did new cap, plugs, mazda sparks plugs, tensioner, water pump, & timing belt. Codeless since.

I did the water pump and tensioner just because.

It also killed my mpg before I did all of the above.

[Fudgie]

Do a compression test before you go any further. Unplug the distributor, wide open throttle for all 4 cylinders and report back. It could be all the things you listed, but you need to start with getting an idea of the condition of your engine before parts are replaced.