Daughter has a 98 Protege that wouldn't start. Fires up but doesn't turn over. Upon inspecting, the cap/rotor appears there might be a crack because its sparking outside the distributor cap.

I am a 50 year old divorced mom who is going to attempt to change this on my own, can I just change the cap or is it required to do the rotor also.

Please let me know I am headed out in the rain to try and fix this.

Ugh.

 

Replace both cap and rotor.
How many miles are on the car and how many miles ago have the spark plugs and wires been replaced?

 

The car has 250000 miles on it. We have had it a year and no clue on when it was changed the last time.

I did already change the cap and rotor and it started and is running.

Daughter is reporting that it seems hard to accelerate after 50 mph.

Did I maybe not get the plugs down tight enough.

 

Consider new wires and new plugs.
Is the the check engine light on?

Consider a new air filter and check if there are cracks in the air intake hose. It is that black hose between the air filter housing and the throttle body. A good way to check is taking the air hose out and bending it.
If it has cracks ( or if yo are not sure) use duct tape and wrap it around that rippled section of the intake hose.