Other body or interior problem on the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500
3 crashes 10 injuries 13 of the 229 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.
When other body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500 report other body or interior problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 52,000 miles and a quarter after 98,000 miles, from 168 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 31,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,600 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.
12% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31,400 miles | 51,930 miles | 74,805 miles | 98,125 miles | 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
Of these reports, 3 a crash and 10 an injury are 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 $200–$2,000 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 32,500 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 132,500 miles.
By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 548; the 2003 has 229. 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.
(second time) we where driving on the 10 fwy with our girls to drop them for the week because we where going on vacation to vegas. That is when the "brand new truck died" it was due to the same reasons sensor and other problem. It had been in the moss dodge dealership since june 13, 2003 . Today is june 20, 2003 we have not heard from them since tuesday. As we where driving on the 10 fwy the truck died completely with the traffic behind us in the fast lane on the freeway. I believe that this truck is not repairable. I also believe that there is to much wrong with this trucks sensor which give the power to drive. This truck to me and my family is consider dangerous to drive from the experience we had on june 13, 2003. We have been complaining but not even the general manager has called us back. We even asked for a corp. Office they said they did not have one. Which is hard to believe. *nlm
When it rained water would come into the vehicle through the top of the door and the side handle. Dealer examined the problem eight times. Dealer claimed to have repaired the problem once, but the problem recurred. *ak
Latch on back glass window is made of thin plastic at the hinges, causing falure with limited use. Without a proper latch the window can open, and a child could climb or fall out. A broken peice of latch could also be a chocking hazard.*ak
Also reported on the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500
Airbag inflator rupture
CV axle or driveshaft failure
Other engine problem
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 229 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 other body or interior problem happen on the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500?
Across 168 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 52,000 miles and a quarter after 98,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500?
229 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.8 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