AtWhatMileage
Transmission · 30 owner reports

Other powertrain problem on the 1999 Dodge Dakota

4 crashes 4 of the 30 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.

Reports of this failure 30
With an odometer reading 10
Reports per 1,000 built 0.3 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 30%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 4
Typical repair $400–$4,500
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 6th

When other powertrain problem gets reported

Owners of the 1999 Dodge Dakota report other powertrain problem at a median of 115,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 135,598 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.

30% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 10 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
22,502 miles 42,500 miles 115,500 miles 146,522 miles 158,100 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, 4 a crash 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 $400–$4,500 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 2,400 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 115,000 miles.

By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 59; the 1999 has 30. 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.

While driving the vehicles' automactic transmission started slipping gears. This resulted in other parts in the transmission burning out.(parts unknown). The dealership indicated this was caused by the rubber seals going bad. There is a tis bulletin for this problem. Ts

80,000 miles NHTSA complaint 390440 filed 2003-01-23

Consumer noticed that the rear axel seal leaked and was dripping fluid onto the rear brakes. This problem was repaired twice, problem recurred. Also, ball joints wore out excessively on both sides, upper and lower.*ak

25,000 miles NHTSA complaint 488403 filed 2004-08-04

When driving 1999 dodge dakota pickup in temperatures below -10 degrees f overdrive malfunctions. Dealer at first claimed that it was supposed do this. Later they admitted that it was a design defect, but, do not know how to fix it. Many of these vehicles have been sold in the northern states under false pretences. *ak

22 miles NHTSA complaint 489160 filed 2004-08-08

Also reported on the 1999 Dodge Dakota

Other suspension problem

45 reports median 59k

Other engine problem

34 reports median 72k

ABS module or sensor failure

32 reports median 55k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 30 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 other powertrain problem happen on the 1999 Dodge Dakota?

Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 115,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other powertrain problem on the 1999 Dodge Dakota?

30 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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