AtWhatMileage
Transmission · 52 owner reports

Other powertrain problem on the 2001 Dodge Dakota

6 crashes 1 injury 7 of the 52 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 52
With an odometer reading 24
Reports per 1,000 built 0.5 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 33%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 7
Typical repair $400–$4,500
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 3rd

When other powertrain problem gets reported

Owners of the 2001 Dodge Dakota report other powertrain problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 24 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 127,292 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.

33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 24 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
3,338 miles 20,750 miles 45,548 miles 83,688 miles 130,630 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, 6 a crash and 1 an injury are 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 2001 has 52. 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.

Auto transmission would not shift properly on acceleartion. Required transducer and solenoid governor valve replacement twice within one year. First time it ws covered under warranty, one year and 17,901 miles later, replacement was required and not covered under dodge warranty.

44,095 miles NHTSA complaint 390357 filed 2003-01-22

When the vehicle takes off from a dead stop the vehicle does not want to move. The transmission slips and right after that the "check engine light comes on. The vehicle does not shift properly and the vehicle runs at a high RPM until the vehicle is shut off. The problem then corrects itself temporarily. I have had this truck serviced at frederick dodge 4 times. First it was diagnosed as being low on transmission fluid(claimed it was not topped off at delivery) and it was causing rear sensor on trans to shut down transmission. Second time brought in for same problem, told that rear sensor is bad, that was replaced, third time, same problem, told that software for tcm needed to be updated. Fourth time, tcm and transmission being replaced. Truck is still in shop. Totally fed up. Truck has less 9500 miles on it. *ts *jb ***dimsii ivoq entry posted after 12-12-02 cut over to artemis***763038

8,200 miles NHTSA complaint 406015 filed 2003-05-05

Front brakes clunk when applied,dealer replaced rotors. Transmission won't shift properly,dealer ordered and replaced new valve body. Lower engine needed to be replaced,because of valve tapping. A/c has bad odor when on. Front end squeaked around boots front end has bad knocking sound. 2 goodyear tires slow leak. Problems started at 1,254 miles, and keep going at 26,000 miles. *ak

1,254 miles NHTSA complaint 422546 filed 2003-08-02

Also reported on the 2001 Dodge Dakota

Premature brake pad or rotor wear

61 reports median 21k

Other engine problem

39 reports median 73k

Other brake problem

35 reports median 29k

Other wheel or tire problem

32 reports median 44k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 52 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 2001 Dodge Dakota?

Across 24 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 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 2001 Dodge Dakota?

52 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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