AtWhatMileage
Engine · 28 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2011 Dodge Caliber

1 fire 1 of the 28 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 28
With an odometer reading 18
Reports per 1,000 built 0.4 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 50%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other engine problem gets reported

Owners of the 2011 Dodge Caliber report other engine problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 18 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 500 miles at the tenth percentile to 70,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 70,100 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 18 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
500 miles 957 miles 27,893 miles 64,000 miles 70,600 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 fire 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 $300–$4,000 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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2011, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 110,000 miles.

By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 54; the 2011 has 28. 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 engine problem 74k
  2. 2008 Dodge Caliber other engine problem 77k
  3. 2009 Dodge Caliber other engine problem 108k
  4. 2010 Dodge Caliber other engine problem 55k
  5. 2011 (this one) 28k
  6. 2012 Dodge Caliber other engine problem 86k

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.

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 dodge caliber. The contact stated that the vehicle would stall while driving at various speeds. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where they were unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. No repairs were performed. The failure mileage was 3,200 and the current mileage was unknown.

3,200 miles NHTSA complaint 863624 filed 2011-06-24

While making a slow speed right turn (into our driveway) the steering locked/ car stalled. The vehicle is a one week old 2011 dodge caliber with 516 mis on it. The same thing occurred about three days ago when making a slow right hand turn a different location. Normal function returned after turning off and restarting the car each time. *tr

516 miles NHTSA complaint 865067 filed 2011-07-04

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 dodge caliber. The contact stated that while driving 5 MPH, the vehicle stalled in the middle of the road. The vehicle restarted within five seconds. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who stated that they were aware of this failure, but there was no fix available. The manufacturer was not notified. The failure mileage was 900.

900 miles NHTSA complaint 867752 filed 2011-07-18

Also reported on the 2011 Dodge Caliber

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 electrical problem

14 reports median 33k

Other powertrain problem

12 reports median 67k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 28 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 engine problem happen on the 2011 Dodge Caliber?

Across 18 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other engine problem on the 2011 Dodge Caliber?

28 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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