AtWhatMileage
Transmission · 3 owner reports

Other powertrain problem on the 2004 Dodge Caravan

Only 2 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.

Reports of this failure 3
With an odometer reading 2
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 100%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $400–$4,500
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 12th

When other powertrain problem gets reported

There are 3 reports of other powertrain problem on the 2004 Dodge Caravan, 2 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 2 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 16,002 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

Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 90,000 miles.

By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 130; the 2004 has 3. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

2004 dodge caravan sxt. ' whine' noise and high frequency vibration in the steering wheel. Noise is most noticeable in cold weather and when wheel is turned right or left. Vehicle has 54 thousand miles now. Dealer did a factory bulletin on this issue at about 30 thousand, did not fix problem and resulted in the smell of fluid/chemical in the passenger compartment that was very slow to go away. Disgusting ! *tr

32,000 miles NHTSA complaint 709143 filed 2009-02-20

Consumer heard a spraying sound from the transmission when the vehicle was in operation. This sound occurred when driving at any speed. Also, when slowing down consumer heard a clicking noise. Dealer responded by saying the sounds that consumer heard were normal for this vehicle. *ak

4 miles NHTSA complaint 461470 filed 2004-03-18

Also reported on the 2004 Dodge Caravan

Other body or interior problem

10 reports median 70k

Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure

9 reports median 72k

Other fuel system problem

7 reports median 58k

Other steering problem

5 reports median 39k

Fuel pump failure

4 reports median 76k

Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure

4 reports median 119k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 3 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 3 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2004 Dodge Caravan?

Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other powertrain problem on the 2004 Dodge Caravan?

3 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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