AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 14 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2011 Dodge Caliber

1 crash 1 of the 14 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.

Reports of this failure 14
With an odometer reading 8
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 50%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 6th

When other electrical problem gets reported

Owners of the 2011 Dodge Caliber report other electrical problem at a median of 35,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 400 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 107,662 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.

50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 8 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
438 miles 972 miles 32,600 miles 74,500 miles 108,100 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 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 $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 2011 has 14. 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.

Median
  1. 2007 Dodge Caliber other electrical problem 80k
  2. 2008 Dodge Caliber other electrical problem 72k
  3. 2009 Dodge Caliber other electrical problem 64k
  4. 2010 Dodge Caliber other electrical problem 67k
  5. 2011 (this one) 33k
  6. 2012 Dodge Caliber other electrical problem 92k

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.

2011 dodge caliber has stalled three times and starter has remained engaged when starting vehicle in the timespan of one week since vehicle was purchased approx. Three weeks ago. Vehicle has been in the service dept. For one week and no resolution has been made. *kb

293 miles NHTSA complaint 867942 filed 2011-07-18

2011 dodge caliber 2.0. Has stalled 5 times while driving. Just stops! The ignition sticks as well. This car only has 1200 miles on it. The stalling occurs just while driving - no specific warning..just shuts down. *kb

500 miles NHTSA complaint 871597 filed 2011-08-03

Ignition sticks on initial daily start up and after sitting for several hours without being ran. There is also a whining noise coming from front end when vehicle is first driven and subsequently after it sits for several hours. It has been to the dealership twice for both issues. Dealer couldn't duplicate. *tr

5,000 miles NHTSA complaint 879235 filed 2011-09-12

Also reported on the 2011 Dodge Caliber

Other engine problem

28 reports median 28k

Other speed control problem

17 reports median 68k

Other suspension problem

15 reports median 59k

Seat belt or retractor failure

14 reports median 48k

Other powertrain problem

12 reports median 67k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 2011 Dodge Caliber?

Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 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 2011 Dodge Caliber?

14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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