Got a 96 Accord EX w/5 spd. Driving from KC to Columbus I got a couple check engine lights. Pulled the code (71 is misfire in cyl. 1 I believe), reset it, let it idle then kept driving. A few hours later it does it again.

The car is obviously not misfiring. Still ran great and when i felt the exhaust it was putting out like a strong four banger. This happened to me once before and I did an OBD2 scan at Advanced auto. They said it only misfired for two or three cycles.

I'm thinking it's gotta be a bad spark plug or something electrical. I'm still getting excelent gas mileage with plenty of power. Rotor and cap looks good near as I can tell, wires are old but still in good shape. Next step will probably be to get some NGK copper plugs and see if that keeps the code from reappearing. I should mention that it was like two months between the first code and the recent two.

Anything else you can think of that I should check out?

 

have you checked the condition of the plugs (esp. cylinder 1)? That will tell you a lot.

I'd recommend a compression test to ensure the motor's still in good shape.

I get a misfire on cylinder 3 all the time, and that cylinder's at ~50% compression.