Are the ignition coils causing the misfire?
1998 Ford Ranger with 2.5L SOHC engine; 215k miles. MIL is ON. Code P0301: Misfire detected on cylinder 1. The spark plugs and plug wires are not very old - the plugs are bright and shiny, and the plug wires have a light coat of dust on them, but look very good, so I don't think that's the problem. I held an extension between my ear the the fuel injectors and they didn't sound different or abnormal, so then I installed a timing light, and it seemed that the timing light would skip a flash every 10 ignition cycles or so, but only at idle. Does it seem logical that the ignition coils are the problem? Does each module fire four plugs individually, or is this a waste spark ignition system? Is there any other way to diagnose the coils or the misfire condition?