Headlight failure or clouding on the 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan
When headlight failure or clouding gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan report headlight failure or clouding at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 75,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 62,100 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 72,900 miles | 79,675 miles | 106,000 miles | 122,500 miles | 135,000 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 $150–$1,800 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 2016, at a median of 2,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 42; the 2006 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.
Occasionally, maybe five or six times in the last year, I would turn the headlights on in my 2006 dodge grand caravan and they would not turn on. I could turn them off then on again and they would stay on. Last night, they turned on the first time I tried. I had been on the road approximately one hour when they went out on me. I turned the on/off switch a few times and they came back on. After 3-4 minutes they went off again, so again I turned the switch off and on and they came back on. They went out again and I found they would stay on if I held the high beam lever down. After about 5 minutes I released the high beam lever and the headlights stayed on for the next 20 minutes until I got home. I will not be driving this vehicle again at night until I can get it fixed. The problem is that 99% of the time, the lights operate correctly. *tr
Intermittent headlight failure on 2006 dodge grand caravan. Upon turning on headlights, they occasionally don't work. They intermittently fail completely while driving without notice or provocation resulting in a very dangerous situation. There are numerous complaints of this well known problem concerning other years of these vehicles on internet forums. There are no known reasons for the problem. I've asked my mechanic and a dodge dealer and they both say it's a well known problem without any answers. *tr
Headlights spontaneously extinguish while operating the vehicle on an intermittent basis. Initial activation of the headlight switch sporadically fails to activate headlights, or activation is delayed by several seconds. Toggling the switch will occasionally return function to the headlights. These incidents occur daily. *tr
Also reported on the 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan
Other body or interior problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
How far this goes
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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is headlight failure or clouding on the 2006 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