Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2007 Dodge Caliber
3 crashes 3 of the 62 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
Owners of the 2007 Dodge Caliber report steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 27,500 miles and a quarter after 57,500 miles, from 58 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 22,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 65,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 41,833 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.
41% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23,167 miles | 26,800 miles | 40,500 miles | 56,750 miles | 65,000 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 is 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 $700–$2,600 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 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 40,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 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.
I had to have the front tie rod ends replaced on my 2007 dodge caliber at 41,500 miles. After researching the problem a little more and discussing it with the service technician, it seems that this is a big problem with 2007 dodge calibers and late model dodges in general. This is a serious safety issue. The technician told me that I'm lucky the steering didn't go out in my car while I was driving down the highway. This is something that should be investigated immediately as there are a lot of dodge calibers on the road right now. What's it going to take to get some action done about this? Someone dying in a horrible accident? *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 dodge caliber. The contact stated while driving at 30 MPH, there was an abnormal rattle coming from the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to a local repair facility where the front passenger side ball joints and tie rod were replaced. The failure recurred but on the driver side. The contact was able to secure a future appointment with the dealer for further diagnostic testing. The manufacturer would not provide any assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 41,000 and the current mileage was approximately 41,200. Updated 9/22/10 *cn the consumer stated the left front control arm and bushings were replaced. Updated 09/24/10
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 dodge caliber. While driving approximately 30 MPH she applied pressure to the brake pedal and heard a squeaking noise. The failure recurred intermittently so the vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the tie rod was replaced. Approximately 6 months later the failure began to recur and the vehicle was taken to an independent repair shop where the brakes were repaired. The failure continued to recur. Approximately 1 year later the vehicle was taken back to an independent repair shop where the brakes, tires, tie rod and ball joints were repaired. The failure continues. The failure mileage was 25,000 and the current mileage was 58,000. The VIN was unavailable.
Also reported on the 2007 Dodge Caliber
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Headlight failure or clouding
Other suspension problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 62 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2007 Dodge Caliber?
Across 58 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 27,500 miles and a quarter after 57,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2007 Dodge Caliber?
62 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 5.0 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