Other steering problem on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan
2 crashes 2 injuries 4 of the 11 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 4 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 other steering problem gets reported
There are 11 reports of other steering problem on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan, 4 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 95,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 146,000 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, 2 a crash and 2 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 $350–$2,400 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 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 48; the 1999 has 11. 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.
1999 grand caravan - serpentine belt comes off when it rains or vehicle is driven through water, even minor amounts. Causes sudden loss of steering ability, especially if it occurs without warning during a turn. I have owned this vehicle for 6 years and 125,000+ miles without incident. During the last 25,000 miles belt has come off unpredictably 6-8 times in wet weather. Occurrences started following replacement of front tires and a wheel alignment. Dealers and service stations have blamed the tensioneer, a pulley, the belt itself, and water. Replacement of these parts does nothing to resolve the problem which occurs again with the next rain storm. Something changed at 125,000 miles that causes the belt to disengage the pulleys and /or tensioner when water is sprayed up by the tires in wet weather. I changed tires to a different tread design and this helped for a time, but with wear the problem recurred. *jb
The serpentine belt on the pulley system came off on several occasions, then on 6-8-07 the belt not only came off again, but the p/s wheel {not sure if that's the correct name for it} or pulley metal bracket, broke completely off. So now I can't even replace the belt this time, as their is nothing there for the belt to meld/adhere to. This does not seem to be an isolated incident or problem, many consumers are complaining of the same types of problems with the belts coming off. Before I invest anymore money with belts and kits and such, I need to know if there is any recalls regarding the "tensioner pulley system." please email me regarding the above mentioned. Thanks, r.jonak hartofusa@yahoo.com
Serpentine belt came off pulleys while driving in heavy rain. Lost ability to steer van. Headed directly for another car and collision narrowly avoided. Belt coming off when wet appears to be a common problem with this series van, and would seem to be a very serious hazard. It is beyond me why dodge is not required to retrofit a better belt/pulley system (which does exist and is on the market). *tr
Also reported on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Strut, shock or spring failure
Cruise control failure
Complete transmission failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 11 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 11 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 steering problem happen on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 145,000 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 other steering problem on the 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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