Other powertrain problem on the 2012 Dodge Caravan
Only 3 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 other powertrain problem gets reported
There are 3 reports of other powertrain problem on the 2012 Dodge Caravan, 3 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 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 3,154 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 2012 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.
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.
The vehicle had been pulled out of the garage put in park, turned off but did have the key left in it. This was intended to only take a moment while we moved a lawn tractor into the garage ahead of the parking spot for the minivan. While we were busy moving the lawn tractor the minivan rolled about 30 yards away from where it had been parked. It settled on some rocks resulting in damage to the underside of the vehicle. The concerning part of this incident was that the van was still in park and turned off when it landed on the rocks. I have brought this incident to the attention of chrysler and after their inspection of the vehicle they found "no evidence of a malfunction which would cause the vehicle to move by itself." I am very concerned that this could happen again possibly resulting in bodily injury or damage to property. *tr
The problem is autonomous acceleration. When my car is moving slowly at idle speed while I'm pulling into or out of a parking space or my home garage and I apply pressure to the steering wheel to guide the car, the engine RPM speed surges by about 400 rpms causing the car to suddenly accelerate forward or backward, depending on the gear selection. This has caused a number of near accidents, including nearly striking children at an elementary school when I was picking up my granddaughter. I reported the problem to the local dodge dealer, but the dealer found no problem after checking the car. Yet, the problem persisted intermittently, but I learned to "live with it." however, the autonomous acceleration is now suddenly growing more frequent. My fear is that this autonomous acceleration problem is a precursor to someday my having a runaway car that results in serious injury or death. *tr
The problem with my 2012 dodge caravan is driving along easily on city streets because with this problem it cant be put on the interstate, when getting ready to go up a hill and it goes out of gear, the RPM hand goes as far as it can go, sometimes easing of the gas the RPM hand will go down to 1 and the transmission will knock, check engine like will come on and it'll go back into gear, but sometime you'll have to pull over and put it in park and turn it off and start all over again, just for it to do the same exact then, and remind you, you can't go over 50mph if 50. I've had the transmission sensor flashed and that didn't help, I had it put on a machine and it reads 6th gear out of ratio
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Caravan
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Stalling while driving
Fuel pump failure
Other brake problem
Other body or interior problem
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 2012 Dodge Caravan?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 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 2012 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