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I have a 2002 Mazda MPV with 133,000 miles. Two months ago, my mechanic replaced the ignition coil on cylinder 4 due to a misfire. Two weeks ago, he replaced the coil on cylinder 6 due to a misfire. Now this morning I'm getting a code for misfire on cylinder 5.

With each case of the misfire, the engine would run rough, and then the check engine light would flash. The light would sometimes go solid and the engine ran fine, but typically back to flashing when at idle.

Does it make sense to simply get the coil on cylinder 5 replaced? Or should I be looking for a bigger issue? After the first two failed, my mechanic seemed to think the rest could possibly fail too.

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  • Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! Sounds to me like I'd get the remaining coils replaced. It's not unheard of for coils to have a lifespan where all of the start giving up the ghost in rapid succession. To better qualify, is this an intermittent misfire, or continuous?
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Feb 19, 2018 at 14:41
  • @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Good question. I updated the post with some more info.
    – BigRedBettaFish
    Feb 19, 2018 at 14:59

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IMHO, your mechanic would be correct in replacing the rest of the coils. It's not unheard of for any car to have coils from the same batch, which means they'll have about the same longevity and likelihood of failure. This means the rest of the coils might fail at any time. Every time a coil fails, it more than likely costs you around an hour's labor to get the single coil replaced. Coils as units are relatively cheap. Getting the rest of them replaced at one time will save you enough in labor to pay for the rest of the coils should you only replace one coil and have a subsequent one fail.

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