Unclassified problem on the 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan
4 crashes 5 injuries 9 of the 40 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.
Only 5 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.
When unclassified problem gets reported
There are 40 reports of unclassified problem on the 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
It is the 67th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 85,000 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
Of these reports, 4 a crash and 5 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 220,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 284; the 1997 has 40. 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.
On 04-26-2003 my family and I were leaving the detroit metro airport parking garage. We had just left our parking spot when we passed over what I assumed was a speed bump going approximately 5 MPH heading toward the ticket booth which was just ahead. As we passed this speed bump our air bags spontaneously deployed for no apparent reason. There is no damage to our vehicle that would justify the air bags going off as they did. We have informed our dealership of this problem, as we feel that the air bags are faulty, and they also agreed at that time that there was no cause for the air bags to deploy. I spoke to the service manager, [xxx] at the m-59 dodge dealer who said that we would be contacted and the matter investigated. I spoke to a [xxx]. , with the chrysler investigations dept who stated to me that they determined that the air bags deployed from impact with a speed bump and no further assistance would be forthcoming. We feel that this should be looked at as a possible problem in the air bag system and at the least have the car fixed, as our dash board is all tore apart at this time, making the car virtually undrivable. We…
Consumer was driving at approximately 10 to 15 MPH ,and while crossing the railroad tracks, both front air bags deployed. Vehicle did not hit anything. When the airbags deployed it cracked the front windshield. *ak
Tl*the contact owns a 1997 dodge grand caravan. The contact noticed that the air bag warning light was illuminated on the instrument panel, which indicated that the air bags were inoperative. He called the dealer in reference to NHTSA campaign id number 02v293000 (air bags:frontal) and was advised that the parts for the repair were on back order. The vehicle has not yet been repaired according to the recall. The failure and current mileages were 69,500. Updated 05/27/09. *lj updated 05/28/09. *jb
Also reported on the 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Wiper or washer failure
Other electrical problem
Cruise control failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 40 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 40 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 unclassified problem happen on the 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 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 unclassified problem on the 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan?
40 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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