Rep Power: 0

In short, Civic developed a sudden cylinder 1 misfire and I'm fairly confident that the coil on cylinder 1 went out (diagnosis details to follow, if you want). I read on here elsewhere that the coils are not a common failure item. The question is -- should I replace only the one cylinder coil and replace the others if/when they fail, or replace all 4? In some cases, I see that it is cheaper per coil to buy a pack of 4 rather than buy them individually, but, if they are not a common failure item, then the other 3 coils may go a long time without replacement. I know that I can roll the dice as well as anyone else, but just wanted to see what others' experiences would recommend.

Edit to add: It has 160k miles on it, if that makes any difference to anyone's opinion.

Diagnosis details. CEL flashing, so hooked up scanner. Scanner shows P0301 cylinder 1 misfire. Look up cylinder ID, then disconnect and pull the cylinder 1 coil. Reconnect the wire to the coil and hook up a spark tester and start engine. No spark on cylinder 1. To compare, pulled coil for cylinder 4 and hooked up spark tester. Lots of spark on cylinder 4. Switch cylinder 1 and cylinder 4 coils. Now lots of spark on cylinder 1 and no spark on cylinder 4. Diagnosis seems pretty definitive, unless you can share a different reason why the no spark would follow the coil.

 
Rep Power: 119

Can’t predict the future for you, but at least when one of these fail you can still drive the car.

 
Rep Power: 244

How much are they? Do you drive 100 miles a day or just a few? Do you have AAA? Is the cost of replacing them less then the hassle of having one go out again?

Cheap insurance but like Slumpert said it won't leave you stranded. Not a common failure item.

 
Rep Power: 0

They run $60-$100 each. Bundles of 4 seem to be priced at buy 3 get the 4th free. The additional cost of replacing 4 is not insignificant, but not necessarily prohibitive, either. They are easy to change, so there is really no labor to be saved.

Thanks for the thoughts.

 
Rep Power: 244

Yeah that is a little pricey. Just replaced mine (40k miles) on my GTI as preventative but 4 OEM ones cost $90. Maybe if they cost more they would be more reliable lol

On my Honda's I would just replace the bad one and not worry about the others.

 
Rep Power: 222

Don't buy cheap crappy eBay ones, better off getting junkyard ones

 
Rep Power: 512

I have a set of d17 ignition coils laying around. Maybe 2 sets. Honda OEM, too