Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault on the 2012 Dodge Charger
When airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge Charger report airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 110,216 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
15% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,784 miles | 46,282 miles | 52,650 miles | 110,000 miles | 127,000 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 $300–$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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 175,000 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.
My charger has 2,317 miles. During driving the air bag light turn on with a chime. The light continue on. I turn the car off and turned on again and the light continue. I stop using the car since I heard that the air bag when this occurred shut down and don't work and if I have any accident, I am not protected by the air bag. On june 5, 2012, I visited the dealer for repaired. After 3 days in the dealer, they called me that the car is ready. On june 8,2012 ,I went to the dealer. In the dealer, the representative told me that the computer showed a code b0020-13. The technician proceed to realize a circuit test based on diagnostic table and they found a wire from the front driver seat air bag that need to be repaired. Based on the technician, one of the pin of the wire was out of position. The technician repaired to correct the code. After one day working good without the air bag light on, a chime sound and appeared again the air bag symbol. I check in various forum related to this car and in all of the forum they have the same problem and the dealer do the same procedure and the result is the same after repaired the light coming…
While driving, airbag light came on. Has come on intermittently in the past. Online search indicates that it is likely wiring to a sensor under the passenger seat, seems to be a common problem. Wiggled wiring under seat and light turned off. Will have dealer look into problem at next scheduled service visit. Problem should be looked into for a recall; a search of the internet brings up many people with the same problem. *tr
The air bag light keeps coming on, have taken it to two different dealerships. The first dealer was atlantic chrysler on 12/31/14, they said it was the bag in the seat. They reset the light and is was fine until approx. March, then came on a couple times. In approximately in april I took it to sport hyndani dodge, they said it was a dirty connection and charged me 90.00. That lasted approximately 1 month and it came back on intermittently, now continually. Took it to sport today september 16, for a recall for the air bag system. They said it would not fix the light being on, they said it was a sensor and they would have to take the seat apart to figure out what the problem was. Did not have it fixed today, did not have the time. Has been in 3 times for same problem only to get 3 different diagnoses.
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Charger
Alternator or charging system failure
Other electrical problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Other engine problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 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 airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault happen on the 2012 Dodge Charger?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault on the 2012 Dodge Charger?
19 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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