Radiator or coolant leak on the 2012 Dodge Avenger
3 crashes 2 fires 3 injuries 8 of the 38 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When radiator or coolant leak gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge Avenger report radiator or coolant leak at a median of 77,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 28 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 51,027 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50,219 miles | 62,838 miles | 78,000 miles | 90,000 miles | 101,246 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 3 a crash, 2 a fire and 3 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $350–$1,900 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 65,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
The vehicle is producing heat/defrost on the drivers side but blows cold air on passenger side, causing the defrost not to work on passenger window. After the mechanic and extensive research I have found several others with this same issue on this make and model. It appears that in the manufacturing of the vehicle something was done incorrectly causing sludge to build in the radiator and the heat core. I have read casting was not done properly, also read problems with the radiator so adjustments were made. I cannot say what the problem is only there is a problem. Most cars I have researched have 20,000 to 30,000 miles and this vehicle very well could have had this problem at this mileage also. We knew the passenger side didn't defrost well but only found the heat blew cold this winter. *tr
Poor heating system performance. Sludge builds up in the cooling system and restricts coolant flow to the heater core causing loss of heat in the passenger compartment. Loss of heat also effects the ability to de-ice or prevent ice and snow build up on the windshield in cold weather operation. This can create a hazardous condition as visibility is greatly reduced. Chrysler group llc has no cause for the sludge formation. The only resolution is to replace the radiator, oil cooler, heater core and radiator cap after completely flushing the cooling system. This is to be done at the owners expense and can cost over $2500.
No heat coming in on the passenger side vents. Lustine dodge did a radiator and heater core flush then told me the heating core needed to be replaced and still want to charge for the flush. I have seen the heating core issue several times reported and needs to be recalled. I am also calling dodge to register complaint and fraud since they know this is an issue.
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Avenger
Heater core failure
Other visibility problem
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other engine problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 38 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does radiator or coolant leak happen on the 2012 Dodge Avenger?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 77,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is radiator or coolant leak on the 2012 Dodge Avenger?
38 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed