There could be a number of reasons why the car is indicating a misfire on cylinder 1. I would not recommend blinding replacing the ignition coil. A better approach in your circumstances would be to swap the coil with another cylinder and see if the misfire moves to the other cylinder.

In regards to driving it, I would be interested in the misfire counts, i.e., is it continuously misfiring or is it an occasional misfire. If the motor is continuously misfiring, or if the check engine light is flashing, I would not drive the car.

 

Thanks for the heads up, the check engine light is always on right now, so maybe that means the motor is continuously misfiring? With that going on, may I ask do you think it's safe to keep driving this car for another 150 miles all the way to the dealership, or is that a bad idea?

 

Swap a coil and see if the code follows it, if it does get a coil as soon as you can. I would go OE then NGK or Delphi. If it doesn't, put in fresh plugs(NGK or Denso)

 

Thank you, the check engine light is always on right now, so maybe that means the motor is continuously misfiring? With that going on, may I ask do you think it's safe to keep driving this car for another 150 miles all the way to the dealership, or is that a bad idea?

 

Steady CEL is not bad - the ecu has detected a few misfires and is letting you know.

Flashing CEL - active and ongoing issue that you should address right away.

if it were me, I’d buy a coil and a plug to have handy since you’re out of town. Like others say, if you swap the coil to another cylinder and the misfire follows, you know that’s the issue.

how many miles on the current plugs and coils?

Counterpoint - I wouldn’t be too scared to drive the 2 hours to the dealer to have them do their analysis either.

 

Thanks for all the advices that really helped! I think I will try to swap the coil first to see if the misfire swaps too. I dont know the condition of the coils but I did change all the plugs about 5K miles ago.

 

any time you have a coil code soon-ish after plug replacement it's worth a little visual inspection. it could be unrelated but there could be something that's worked loose (even a spark plug backing out - torque is very low only 18Nm / 13ft-lb)

 

Thank you! I think I will try to do that before I swap the coils, but I do not have so many experiences about that so maybe there are some loosing but I can not notice that. But 18NM relps, I will try to reckon the torque.

 

fyi I don't mess around with spark plug torque in aluminum heads anymore. there's too much at stake both from going too low and too high. unfortunately a quality torque wrench is about $100 but I consider it necessary for someone who isn't turning wrenches every day and doesn't have a good feel (like me)

 

I ordered a torque wrench from Amazon which was enough to properly torque the plugs. You need it because too tight or loose can also cause misfiring. I ordered DENSO coil from FCP euro and solved the problem.

 

If you are brave enough…

 

Saw this video and now I think this is not so hard for me, so I will try.

 

Well, that’s an interesting twist, if the plugs were recently done. I bet it’s a tired coil. Worth checking that the plug is ok in that cylinder.
Even without wrenching experience this is an easy 4cyl to work on. As others have mentioned, aluminum is soft, so don’t overdo any plugs - just snug and a quarter turn is plenty, if you don’t have a torque wrench.

that video posted should be a great reference for the steps.

 

If you need to order parts there are several Volvo dealers with an online parts department. Makes price comparison easy. I’ve ordered 4 new wheels from several states away because of the price and fast shipping.