Other electrical problem on the 2008 Dodge Caliber
1 crash 2 fires 3 of the 32 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 other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Dodge Caliber report other electrical problem at a median of 72,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 112,500 miles, from 28 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 110,686 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39,914 miles | 51,730 miles | 71,623 miles | 113,479 miles | 150,600 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, 1 a crash and 2 a fire 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 $250–$2,000 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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2011, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 80,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 94; the 2008 has 32. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
Had car in park. Started vehicle and starter kept trying to turn over. Stopped car and took key out, starter kept going. Started car again and drove 30 feet while starter is turning over and smoke was coming into vehicle. Vehicle then stopped and engine died. The vehicle ended up stopped in the middle of a four lane main road. Lights were on and battery was still working. Could not start car. Police were called due to vehicle being inoperative. Towed to dealer, where they ran tests on new starter after it was replaced. Was told all tests passed and the original was a bad starter. On march 18, 2010 engine was starting to make similar sounds and vehicle tried starting without a key in ignition. The only way to stop this, was to pull wire off the battery. *tr
Went shopping came out from shopping my car left me stranded had it towed to the dealer I bought it from after being stranded for over 3 hours they had to sent it to a dodge dealer they said the issue was from a static lock which cased my module to have to be rest but then they told me if it happens again I just need to unplug the positive cable to the battery and it should work which it does but they said they had to reset my key to it so I was charged for them to do nothing and the car is still not fixed it happened again on january 7 2011 and so I called the dealer I bought if from and they told me to bring in and they would look at some components and install a ground wire well I did that but then the they told me the car couldn't be working so in other words they were not going to do anything to fix this problem I bought it from jerrery kia I need a reliable car to drive and I don't have one and I too will never buy a dodge again. *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 dodge caliber. While driving approximately 55 MPH the vehicle lost power and the electric throttle control warning light illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing and the technicians informed the contact that the computer and the throttle body needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure mileage was 50,000.
Also reported on the 2008 Dodge Caliber
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other suspension problem
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 32 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 other electrical problem happen on the 2008 Dodge Caliber?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 72,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 112,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2008 Dodge Caliber?
32 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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