Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan
When airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault gets reported
Owners of the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan report airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault at a median of 82,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 137,500 miles, from 36 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 55,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 147,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 93,750 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54,250 miles | 64,975 miles | 81,800 miles | 138,000 miles | 148,000 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 $300–$1,600 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 238; the 1999 has 49. 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.
Sometime within the past two weeks, the air bag light on the instrument panel lit up. The mechanic who usually works on our van (not at the dealership) informed us that there was a "technical service bulletin" concerning the "clock spring." I took the van to the dealer to have the air bag checked, & showed the service technician the service bulletin. The clock spring was, in fact, defective. We own a 1999 dodge grand caravan.
The air bag light illuminated, the cruise control and horn were not working. The dealer replaced the clock spring at the owner's expense of $300 dollars. *nm the consumer requested reimbursement for the repair(s). *sc *jb
When vehicle is started air bag light comes on and stays on. When air bag light comes on neither horn nor or cruise control work. Consumer feels that the clock spring is the problem, but is not absolutely sure. *ak
Also reported on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Strut, shock or spring failure
Cruise control failure
Complete transmission failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 49 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 airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault happen on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan?
Across 36 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 82,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 137,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan?
49 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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