Alternator or charging system failure on the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan
When alternator or charging system failure gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan report alternator or charging system failure at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 59,326 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44,835 miles | 49,000 miles | 68,000 miles | 102,201 miles | 104,161 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 $450–$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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1998, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 43; the 2013 has 14. 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.
My wife was traveling with our daughter on the highway when all of a sudden the instrument lights started flashing, radio went off, and the car began powering down. Thankfully she was able to safely pull off the highway into a parking lot just as it shut down. The vehicle wouldn't restart. I had to leave work early and meet her with jumper cables. In the meantime I called the dealership where we purchased this car new in october of 2012. The service representative kindly told me that because we had 42k miles on it that it was outside of the 3/36000 warranty. I expressed complete disgust with this because we consider this a new (and our dependable) vehicle that is only 20 months old. I managed to charge the battery and limp the car home. I removed the alternator and found one of the slip rings along with one brushes completely worn down to nothing. It's clearly a defective alternator that resulted in a very dangerous driving situation due to loss of power at 60mph on the highway. Chrysler customer care and the dealership had no sympathy and even after bringing the alternator into the dealership the service manager said they would…
Our 2013 dodge grand caravan alternator and pcs failed at 68000 miles. The failure occurred while driving with my wife and 4 children in the car. Multiple dashboard lights came on and the the vehicle engine was racing but the transmission would not engage. The only reason there was not a crash was that they were traveling downhill and did not need to accelerate as the vehicle was not able to. Luckily they were able to pull the car over without incident. Dodge has recalled this alternator in over 900,000 vehicles on 4 other models with the 3.6 liter engine but has not in the grand caravan for some reason. I contacted dodge and they were unwilling to help in any way to repair my vehicle to make it operable and safe again. This repair was quoted form my local dodge dealer to cost over $750.
While driving on the highway vehicle starting losing power. It started shutting down all systems and finally stopped working. Vehicle is 3 years old with 50k mileage. The alternator failed. There is a recall for other dodge vehicles with similar engines that have faulty alternators. This should be included in that recall. Luckily my kids were not in the vehicle and we could get off to the side safely. Dodge charged me $1000 for a new alternator and a battery in a 3 year old vehicle. *tr
Also reported on the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan
Other electrical problem
Fuel pump failure
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 alternator or charging system failure happen on the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is alternator or charging system failure on the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan?
14 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