Water pump failure on the 2004 Dodge Intrepid
Only 5 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.
When water pump failure gets reported
There are 8 reports of water pump failure on the 2004 Dodge Intrepid, 5 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 100,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 120,000 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 $500–$2,200 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1998, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 1996 carries the most reports, with 43; the 2004 has 8. 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.
Driving home from work in my 2004 dodge intrepid when I heard a strange gushing noise from under the hood. The gauges in the car read that everything was fine, car was not overheating, etc... Approximately 1 to 2 miles later the car stopped running. I coasted over to the side of the road and called my husband. He and my son in law came and we pulled the car back to the house. Upon inspection of the engine, there was water in the oil when we pulled the dipstick. My son in law is an ase certified mechanic and he went over the car thoroughly in the next day and found that without warning, the water pump blew. The engine was a total loss. The car had approximately 120,000 miles on it and I still had a year of payments to make. Dodge should do something about these cars and this 2.7 engine. It's a shame, I loved my car! *tr
Car began steaming, and smoking. Had to pull over to let it cool down, no extra antifreeze available. Once cooled, limped it to mechanic. Mechanic stated fuel pump is out again, after only 45,000 more miles on brand new dodge water pump. Mechanic also stated that oil pressure is too high and seals bad, oil spewing out everywhere. He said this is a defect of the dodge 2.7 liter engine and since water pump is incorporated into motor, the cost to replace it, put all new seals and fix the oil pump would not be worth the value of the car and he will not do it because he refuses to "spend other people's money on a junk motor." he stated that even rebuilt dodge 2.7 liter motors are bad and will quit after only a few thousand miles. He says you can not get a good 2.7 liter dodge motor for any intrepid built between 1998-2008. He had paperwork showing dodge knew it was a poor design that would blow and not be worth the cost of repair. I want this corrected and anyone who owned one of these lemons reimbursed for the cost of repairs for these vehicles! Dodge knowingly sold these lemons and did nothing to fix the issue until 2008! This is a…
Car began steaming, and smoking. Had to pull over to let it cool down, no extra antifreeze available. Once cooled, limped it to mechanic. Mechanic stated fuel pump is out again, after only 45,000 more miles on brand new dodge water pump. Mechanic also stated that oil pressure is too high and seals bad, oil spewing out everywhere. He said this is a defect of the dodge 2.7 liter engine and since water pump is incorporated into motor, the cost to replace it, put all new seals and fix the oil pump would not be worth the value of the car and he will not do it because he refuses to "spend other people's money on a junk motor." he stated that even rebuilt dodge 2.7 liter motors are bad and will quit after only a few thousand miles. He says you can not get a good 2.7 liter dodge motor for any intrepid built between 1998-2008. He had paperwork showing dodge knew it was a poor design that would blow and not be worth the cost of repair. I want this corrected and anyone who owned one of these lemons reimbursed for the cost of repairs for these vehicles! Dodge knowingly sold these lemons and did nothing to fix the issue until 2008! This is a…
Also reported on the 2004 Dodge Intrepid
Other engine problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
No-start or intermittent start failure
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 water pump failure happen on the 2004 Dodge Intrepid?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 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 water pump failure on the 2004 Dodge Intrepid?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 82 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