Other electrical problem on the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500
2 crashes 2 fires 1 injury 5 of the 36 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500 report other electrical problem at a median of 52,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 28 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 7,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 127,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 120,670 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.
36% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,250 miles | 20,750 miles | 51,500 miles | 90,000 miles | 126,920 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, 2 a crash, 2 a fire and 1 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 $250–$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 2008, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 79; the 2003 has 36. 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
We had just purchased a dodge ram 1500 on march 29. 2003 when the next day it died on us. We had it towed to the nearest dealer ship. At that time they said it had to with the sensor then later on a few days later they called back and said that it was also the module that was defected with the sensor. Told it was fixed after they had order those parts. (this is only first time truck died). *nlm
Fire started in area of cigarette lighter/radio and melted all surrounding componenets, resulting in extensive smoke damage to complete interior including seats, headliner, windows. A portion of the carpet and seats were burned. Vehicle is inoperable. Insurance pending. *ak
Also reported on the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500
Other body or interior problem
Airbag inflator rupture
CV axle or driveshaft failure
Other engine problem
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 36 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 electrical problem happen on the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 52,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2003 Dodge RAM 1500?
36 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