Radiator or coolant leak on the 2008 Dodge Charger
10 fires 10 of the 39 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 radiator or coolant leak gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Dodge Charger report radiator or coolant leak at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 72,500 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles, from 33 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 55,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 182,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 125,400 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.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 56,200 miles | 73,500 miles | 90,700 miles | 133,400 miles | 181,600 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, 10 a fire is 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 $350–$1,900 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 2011, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 40; the 2008 has 39. 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.
Plastic radiator cooling fan broke apart, shattering the fan blades, fan shroud and making numerous large holes in the radiator. Vehicle undriveable and repaired under warranty. Police vehicle. *tr
On christmas eve, december 24th 2012 at approximately 1:45 in the afternoon I was driving my 2008 dodge charger on a busy intersection when all of a sudden I heard a loud banging noise from my engine compartment. After I heard the loud noise, my 2008 dodge charger immediately stopped and shut off in the middle of the busy intersection nearly causing a chain reaction multicar accident. A local police offer came to the scene and helped direct traffic until I was able to physically push my car out of heavy traffic. Once I was able to look under the hood I noticed a lot of coolant pouring to the ground. I also notice that there was no coolant in the coolant department. I contacted the local dodge dealership, but unfortunately they were closed due to the holidays. Lucky I was able to bring my 2008 dodge charger to tire kingdom. The manager of tire kingdom identified the problem and stated that my cooling fan broke off causing the broken pieces of the fan to fly into my radiator which caused my radiator damage and left a hole in my radiator. Additionally I had to pay $571.36 to repair my 2008 dodge charger and the day before christmas…
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 dodge charger. The contact stated while driving approximately 60 MPH a loud popping and banging noise emitted from underneath the hood. The vehicle was maneuvered to the side of the road. The driver noticed that the fan assembly and radiator both fractured as a result of a large amount of antifreeze leakage. In addition, steam emitted from underneath the hood. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic. The manufacturer issued a customer satisfaction notification related to the electronic power cooling fan. The reference was number l08. The VIN was not included in the customer satisfaction notification. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 182,000.
Also reported on the 2008 Dodge Charger
Other electrical problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Airbag inflator rupture
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 39 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 radiator or coolant leak happen on the 2008 Dodge Charger?
Across 33 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 72,500 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is radiator or coolant leak on the 2008 Dodge Charger?
39 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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