AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 10 owner reports

Loss of braking on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan

Only 6 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.

Reports of this failure 10
With an odometer reading 6
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 33%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $400–$3,000
What it means when it happens Critical
Rank among this year's problems 16th

When loss of braking gets reported

There are 10 reports of loss of braking on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan, 6 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 78,000 miles. It is the 16th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 6 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 85,831 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 $400–$3,000 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.

This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2010 at 135,000 miles.

By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 25; the 2012 has 10. 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.

Chrysler refuses to acknowledge a serious defect in the braking system of the dodge grand caravans. I purchased a new 2012 grand caravan from a dealership. On july 31, 2013, quirk dealership in braintree, ma replaced rear rotors on the van at 17,000 miles because "rear rotors were very marked up and had rust rings." on january 18, 2014, same dealership told me that rotors were pitted again at 27,000 miles and had to be replaced for $502.00 (out of pocket). When I protested that mopar parts should not fail in less than 6 months, the service person told me that "dodges are known for these problems." I contacted chrysler customer assistance to see if they would cover their defective parts and have been given the total run around. Chrysler offered me $60.00 off the price of the brake job but I declined because factory parts should not fail so quickly. I checked the internet (lemon law blog, car complaints, etc.) and found hundreds if not thousands of complaints similar to mine for premature brake failure in 2006-2012 caravans & town and country's. Chrysler is aware of this problem and is trying to avoid responsibility for repairing…

27,048 miles NHTSA complaint 1034179 filed 2014-01-24

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge grand caravan. While driving 25 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed and the brakes failed to respond. In addition, the vehicle failed to reverse. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the calipers needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 18,000.

18,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1227157 filed 2015-10-09

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge grand caravan. The contact stated that while driving at 30 MPH and approaching a red light, the brake pedal was depressed but the brakes failed to respond. The contact had to applied excessive force on brake pedal in order for the vehicle to stop. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the brake pedal, the brake pump and the emergency brake needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 51,661.

51,661 miles NHTSA complaint 1249048 filed 2015-12-30

Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan

Other electrical problem

219 reports median 97k

Other engine problem

72 reports median 100k

Fuel pump failure

69 reports median 110k

Stalling while driving

37 reports median 106k

Other powertrain problem

36 reports median 60k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 10 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 10 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 loss of braking happen on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan?

Across 6 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 loss of braking on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan?

10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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