Wiring harness or short circuit on the 2012 Dodge Charger
When wiring harness or short circuit gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge Charger report wiring harness or short circuit at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 73,815 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.
14% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33,185 miles | 43,925 miles | 69,562 miles | 87,506 miles | 107,000 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 $400–$3,500 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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 50; the 2012 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge charger. The contact stated that the headlights intermittently failed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was found that the wiring harness had failed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and about the failure. The failure mileage was 60,026.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge charger. The contact stated that the head lights failed to activate. The contact mentioned that after inspecting the vehicle, he noticed that the wiring harness connector was melted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the technician verified the failure and stated that the vehicle was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 12v042000 (electrical system, exterior lighting, service brakes, hydraulic). The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 45,000 and the current mileage was 47,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge charger. The contact stated that the air bag warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, who diagnosed that the wiring harness needed to be soldered. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 83,000.
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 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 wiring harness or short circuit happen on the 2012 Dodge Charger?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is wiring harness or short circuit on the 2012 Dodge Charger?
17 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