AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 21 owner reports

Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure on the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan

1 fire 1 of the 21 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.

Reports of this failure 21
With an odometer reading 18
Reports per 1,000 built 0.3 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 11%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $250–$1,500
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 6th

When ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure gets reported

Owners of the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan report ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure at a median of 125,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 150,000 miles, from 18 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 170,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 123,250 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.

11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 18 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
44,250 miles 70,500 miles 127,000 miles 148,000 miles 167,500 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, 1 a fire is 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 $250–$1,500 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.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 140,000 miles.

By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 84; the 2013 has 21. 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.

Median
  1. 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  2. 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 101k
  3. 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  4. 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  5. 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 13k
  6. 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 85k
  7. 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 85k
  8. 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 96k
  9. 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 93k
  10. 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 80k
  11. 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 90k
  12. 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 90k
  13. 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 140k
  14. 2013 (this one) 127k
  15. 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 14k
  16. 2015 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 41k
  17. 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 67k
  18. 2017 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 90k
  19. 2018 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 46k
  20. 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure 52k

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 door locks stopped working for both the lock button and the key fob. This becomes a safety issue because the side doors can be locked manually, but the lift gate does not have a manual lock. Additionally online research shows that the tipm failure can cause catastrophic events such as sudden airbag deployment for no reason, failure to start, stalling while driving, etc.!! Chrysler is said to be well aware of this issue and has yet to initiate a recall and we were planning on a florida vacation this year (we live in ohio) and due to the possibility of getting stuck on our way or once there, we decided not to go to the dismay of our kids. Fix this problem chrysler and quit screwing your customers!!!

49,500 miles NHTSA complaint 1186238 filed 2015-05-28

While I am driving my car if I hit a bump and the key moves slightly the car will shut off and if I touch the key accidentally the car will shut off the mechanic set I need a new ignition switch

3,400 miles NHTSA complaint 1473286 filed 2018-06-04

Also reported on the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan

Other electrical problem

180 reports median 87k

Fuel pump failure

57 reports median 113k

Other body or interior problem

53 reports median 87k

Other engine problem

36 reports median 86k

Other powertrain problem

19 reports median 76k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 21 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 ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure happen on the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan?

Across 18 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 125,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 150,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure on the 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan?

21 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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