AtWhatMileage
Lighting · 3 owner reports

Headlight failure or clouding on the 2013 Dodge Charger

Only 2 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 3
With an odometer reading 2
Reports per 1,000 built 0.0 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 100%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $150–$1,800
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 37th

When headlight failure or clouding gets reported

There are 3 reports of headlight failure or clouding on the 2013 Dodge Charger, 2 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 37th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 2 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 3,400 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 $150–$1,800 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 1,800 miles, and latest on the 2019 at 90,000 miles.

By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 105; the 2013 has 3. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Headlight defect. Brand new vehicle. Drivers side high beam much too high. High beam only serves to light trees in front of vehicle when used. Reported to selling dealer, and left car for service. Service writer stated that they had corrected the problem. By "adjusting the high beam". After picking vehicle up, and testing the headlights, I found that what had been done is adjusting the entire driver's side headlight down such that the low beam was unusable. In effect, what they had done was adjusted the driver's side headlight so that the height of the driver's side high beam matched the passenger's side high beam. I returned to the servicing dealer, and showed them photographs of the light patterns resulting from their adjustments. They were at a loss as to how to correct the problem. They state that they have contacted the manufacturer in an effort to get permission to replace a defective headlight assembly. Upon last checking with dealer, manufacturer had not given permission to replace the defective headlight assembly. Searches on the internet show other instances of this problem for this specific vehicle type. It apparently…

300 miles NHTSA complaint 993677 filed 2013-07-14

Tl* the contact owns a 2013 dodge charger. The contact stated condensation and water built up around the headlight lens while driving. The contact was unable to clean the lens. The dealer advised the contact to leave the high beams on for thirty minutes in order to clear the condensation . The dealer replaced the headlight unit but that did not remedy the defect. The failure mileage was 6,500. Updated 05/12/2014*lj

6,500 miles NHTSA complaint 1035771 filed 2014-01-31

Also reported on the 2013 Dodge Charger

Alternator or charging system failure

116 reports median 56k

Other electrical problem

65 reports median 57k

Other powertrain problem

26 reports median 50k

Other engine problem

25 reports median 60k

Other steering problem

15 reports median 66k

Other speed control problem

15 reports median 55k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 3 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 3 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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2013 Dodge Charger?

Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is headlight failure or clouding on the 2013 Dodge Charger?

3 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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