Other powertrain problem on the 2009 Dodge Challenger
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 17 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.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Dodge Challenger report other powertrain problem at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 75,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 72,718 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
47% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,100 miles | 27,293 miles | 41,000 miles | 67,500 miles | 76,818 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 and 1 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.
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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 400 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 45,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 22; the 2009 has 17. 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 1-4 gear shift skip feature, which is supposed to improve fuel economy, can lead to missed shifts or loss of vehicle power during low speed maneuvering, possibly leading to a crash. A commercially available low cost component disables this feature, however it requires the consumer to void their manufacturer warranty in order to fix a safety defect. *tr
2009 dodge challenger r/t loses power while under load such as going up hills or passing; and the RPM pulsates. This condition appears to occur more in hot weather. Upon deceleration, transmission shifts so roughly that vehicle lost traction in slippery road conditions, and nearly resulted in a crash. These appear to be two separate conditions that make the vehicle extremely unsafe. *tr
I own a 2009 dodge challenger srt. I was driving 30mph down a street, honked the horn and braked at the same time and my car completely turned off while still in drive. I have asked all american in odessa where I purchased the car to fix it and they told me that there is no recall on my model car. I printed out recall #08v458000 on the power train automatic transmission. Apparently a module is to be replaced so that the car will not be able to turn off unless it is in park only. This sounds like the problem that I had. The technician at all american said he could not help me since there was not a recall on his (chrysler) web that requested replacing my model car module. I am just afraid that this will happen again and possibly cause injury. Please let me know what I need to do to get all american to listen to me. I may be the only one that this has happen to so far but I sure hope that it does not happen again or to anyone else just because it was not on his web recall page. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Dodge Challenger
Other engine problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 17 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 2009 Dodge Challenger?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 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 other powertrain problem on the 2009 Dodge Challenger?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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