Alternator or charging system failure on the 2012 Dodge Challenger
1 crash 2 fires 1 injury 4 of the 70 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 alternator or charging system failure gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge Challenger report alternator or charging system failure at a median of 52,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 62,500 miles, from 58 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 72,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 38,969 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
12% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34,400 miles | 40,192 miles | 53,210 miles | 61,750 miles | 73,369 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, 2 a fire 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 $450–$1,600 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 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2010 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge challenger. The contact stated that when the brakes were depressed, the headlights and instrument panel lights would flicker from dim to maximum illumination. The vehicle was taken to the dealer several times for the failure. The alternator and battery were replaced however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was not further repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 4,000 and the current mileage was 5,028. ....updated 12/20/12 *bf the consumer stated this also happened when turning the steering wheel. Updated 12/27/2012 *js
First, to happen was I pulled out of driveway when the "brakes' warning light came on. Continued travelling, and soon became nightime driving. Was going approx. 55 MPH, when the instrument panel began to flash numerous warning lights. Then, the radio and interior lights began turning off and on. I was not able to manually turn off the radio during this time. I continued to drive to try to make it to a gas station. Then I felt hot air coming thru the vents. It was like I had on the heater, but I didnt. (nor the AC was on.) the car lost all power. The steering wheel locked. I was stranded. I was not able to put the car in neutral to move out of dangerous roadside nor was I able to put on the hazard lights, they came on but were very dim and slow flashing. All power was lost, no horn, lights...nothing. Did notice a burn smell coming from under the hood, but not sure what the cause was. I had it towed to the dealership. They stated it was an alternator/battery issue. They replaced the alternator/battery, however the airbag warning light was now on and horn no longer working. I didnt understand why the dealership didn't repair the…
First, to happen was I pulled out of driveway when the "brakes' warning light came on. Continued travelling, and soon became nightime driving. Was going approx. 55 MPH, when the instrument panel began to flash numerous warning lights. Then, the radio and interior lights began turning off and on. I was not able to manually turn off the radio during this time. I continued to drive to try to make it to a gas station. Then I felt hot air coming thru the vents. It was like I had on the heater, but I didnt. (nor the AC was on.) the car lost all power. The steering wheel locked. I was stranded. I was not able to put the car in neutral to move out of dangerous roadside nor was I able to put on the hazard lights, they came on but were very dim and slow flashing. All power was lost, no horn, lights...nothing. Did notice a burn smell coming from under the hood, but not sure what the cause was. I had it towed to the dealership. They stated it was an alternator/battery issue. They replaced the alternator/battery, however the airbag warning light was now on and horn no longer working. I didnt understand why the dealership didn't repair the…
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Challenger
Other electrical problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Wiring harness or short circuit
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 70 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 alternator or charging system failure happen on the 2012 Dodge Challenger?
Across 58 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 52,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 62,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is alternator or charging system failure on the 2012 Dodge Challenger?
70 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.1 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