Stalling while driving on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan
When stalling while driving gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan report stalling while driving at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 72,500 miles and a quarter after 127,500 miles, from 26 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 67,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 137,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 70,104 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.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67,126 miles | 73,725 miles | 105,589 miles | 127,500 miles | 137,230 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–$2,500 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 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 60; the 2012 has 37. 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.
The vehicle will shutdown randomly with no indication as to why and/or will not start randomly due to antitheft being activated. The check engine light is not activated upon vehicle shutdown or failure to start. When the engine shuts off while driving the tachometer will reap about 900 RPM and the only indicator on the dash is a yellow traction control illumination on the dash. There is no check engine light, low oil pressure indication, or low battery indication. After a period of time from a few minutes to several hours the vehicle will restart and run normally. The vehicle may run normally for a few seconds to months at a time until the problem reappears. The problem can occur anytime while driving the vehicle including driving on the highway, intersections, parking lots, and expressways. When the vehicle stops running, the steering and braking become very difficult to operate. *tr
I have owned this van since 05/24/2012. At 30,922 miles and date of 01/06/2014 the positive battery cable corroded through and the van died while driving. The dealer replaced the entire cable under factory warranty. On 04/24/2016 & 62,036 miles the positive battery cable corroded through again and the van died while driving it. It seems that this is going to happen every 2 years. Eventually it's going to happen in heavy traffic and someone will get run over by fast rush hour traffic.
We own a 2012 dodge grand caravan, we have been having issues with the vehicle not starting when you turn the key, all the gauge lights will come on but it will not engage the starting system until you wiggle the key around while in the start position. Recently the vehicle stalled while driving around a corner, it was just like turning off the key, the steering locked luckily it was at a low speed and there was no oncoming traffic, the van coasted into the on coming lane. After turn the key off and putting the van back into park it started again, we did not chance driving the vehicle any where but to the dealership, they said it was the win module and it needs to be replaced. After doing some research it is similar to the issues that the 08 - 10 dodge grand caravans are recalled for. The newer models of there vehicles need to have the win systems investigated as well.
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Fuel pump failure
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other powertrain problem
Alternator or charging system failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 37 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 stalling while driving happen on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan?
Across 26 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 72,500 miles and a quarter after 127,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is stalling while driving on the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan?
37 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