Ignition coil HITACHI or APR

FWIW, I got an APR Stage 1+ tune on my '13 CC at about 30k miles. Blew one of the stock coils within a month. Replaced with red tops and new plugs and have been good since then (19k miles).

I also ordered four (4) new ignition coils from Hitachi, installed them 60 miles ago and it's been smooth since the installation. My car is quieter, more responsive, and idles better. No, check engine lights at all.

Did this conversion on my 2001 Audi A4 with a standalone. I ran it with stock (3ms) dwell and up to 5ms dwell and didnt notice any difference. I was running Hitatchi coils before and would notice slight bumps in idle. Now all I hear is smooth butter at idle.

The old AWD hitachi coils are far more reliable in my experience. I would not change to the awp style from the bolt downs. I have had ~8 failed AWP coils over the years on my 2001 audi/2002 gti and I have 8 hitachis now in my 2 1.8t's for a few years now and no hitachi failures. This is with track days on the gti. They also bolt down so you won't have them popping up on you whack a mole style like the awp ones sometimes do

Don't replace ignition coils until one or more gives out, then I would look into replacing them all with Hitachi E ignition coils (bolt-downs).

To make a story short, and have a happy ending like me , just buy the 1.8 T coilpack (coil-on-plug x 4) manufactured by Hitachi (Japan). They have the top of the plug filled with some ceramic epoxy-like stuff that seems really sturdy and heatproof. I bought them at ECSTuning.com over a year ago, and they haven't failed not even once.

best ignition coils ever. i've been through two other OEM revisions before finally getting the Hitachi bolt-downs from ECS.. and i've been misfire free for about 6 months now!

APR coils lasted almost a year (5/6000 miles) when I pushed it and let go of the pedal. CEL would flash and random cylinders misfire.

As stated APR coils are know to not be as good as OE/OEM. I have seen a lot of people with APR coils chasing misfires and the replace with OEM and it’s fixed. Even with new APR this has happened.

Options like APR's and RS3 coils offer very little if at all over factory other than looking pretty.