Unclassified problem on the 2003 Dodge Caravan
5 crashes 9 injuries 14 of the 11 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.
Only 9 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Dodge Caravan report unclassified problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 49th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 70,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 55,982 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
22% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15,887 miles | 37,000 miles | 44,000 miles | 70,000 miles | 71,869 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, 5 a crash and 9 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 1 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 89; the 2003 has 11. 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.
I was driving a rental 2003 dodge caravan from alamo with 6,435 miles on it. I was in a parking lot moving at approximately 3 MPH when both the driver and passenger airbags were deployed without warning.*ak
40 to 60 MPH rear end crash by bmw into stationary (trans in drive, waiting to exit expressway) 2003 dodge caravan sport - (only driver and front passenger in caravan, both with seat belts fastened) all seat backs collapsed backward, including middle bench, both driver and passenger were flung back causing neck injuries. If a child had been sitting on the middle bench seat they may have been crushed. In addition the driver side visor detached completely (electrical wires torn out from visor light) and flew into the drivers face. The caravan after being hit was pushed into the next car in front of it. Neither the driver side or passenger side airbags deployed.*ak
Approx. 10:30 on sat. Aug. 27th, 2005 I drove my 2003 dodge caravan to wal-mart on bleachery blvd to get my son a hat for the parade he would be in at noon that day. As I parked my van and turned off the ignition and turned to look for my purse on the back seat, I decided to get out and open the left back sliding door. As I turned getting out of the van the drivers airbag exploded in my back and pushed me the rest of the way out of the vehicle. My father and son were with me and my father called 911. The fire dept. Came and made a report because the airbag cause whelps and burns on my back and I later went to the er after my son finished his events for the day. The fire dept. Called apd(police)at the time of the incident... The officer (keith mcculloch #2600) said that because I was sitting still and had not hit anything and nothing hit me, there was no accident there was no police report needed.. He then gave me the phone number to the NHTSA and said to file a complaint.... Since then I have been trying to get chrysler to resolve the matter quickly so I can get my vehicle back. They have drug their feet on the matter and said…
Also reported on the 2003 Dodge Caravan
Other steering problem
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Alternator or charging system failure
Other powertrain problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 11 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2003 Dodge Caravan?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2003 Dodge Caravan?
11 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