Complete transmission failure on the 2008 Dodge RAM 1500
Only 2 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 complete transmission failure gets reported
There are 2 reports of complete transmission failure on the 2008 Dodge RAM 1500, 2 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 98,000 miles. It is the 41st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 51,000 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 $2,800–$8,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 230,000 miles.
By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 18; the 2008 has 0. 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.
We were driving our dodge ram 1500 mega cab (51,000 miles) on interstate 25 just south of douglass wyoming. We were going approximately 77 miles per hour and in an instant I lost all control of the steering and we ended up off the side of the road after a very frightening experience. I bought this truck just over a year ago from a dealer outside denver, co. When the tow driver arrived, he immediately told me that my tie rod probably broke as my right front tire went completely sideways and was now rendered useless. He mentioned that we were very lucky as most times he sees these types of things, the truck rolls over. He also mentioned there was a recall on these tie rods. We had it towed to a dealer in douglass and are waiting to hear what they have to say on monday. I ran my VIN# on dodge's web site to see if its a recall, but its telling me that my truck doesn't have any on it. Candidly, after talking to mechanics locally, they said a tie rod should never bust like that and with so little miles on the truck. To say this is dangerous is clearly an understatement. This type of "defect" is going to kill people as it almost did us…
We were driving our dodge ram 1500 mega cab (51,000 miles) on interstate 25 just south of douglass wyoming. We were going approximately 77 miles per hour and in an instant I lost all control of the steering and we ended up off the side of the road after a very frightening experience. I bought this truck just over a year ago from a dealer outside denver, co. When the tow driver arrived, he immediately told me that my tie rod probably broke as my right front tire went completely sideways and was now rendered useless. He mentioned that we were very lucky as most times he sees these types of things, the truck rolls over. He also mentioned there was a recall on these tie rods. We had it towed to a dealer in douglass and are waiting to hear what they have to say on monday. I ran my VIN# on dodge's web site to see if its a recall, but its telling me that my truck doesn't have any on it. Candidly, after talking to mechanics locally, they said a tie rod should never bust like that and with so little miles on the truck. To say this is dangerous is clearly an understatement. This type of "defect" is going to kill people as it almost did us…
Also reported on the 2008 Dodge RAM 1500
Airbag inflator rupture
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other steering problem
Other fuel system problem
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 2 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 2 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 2008 Dodge RAM 1500?
Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 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 complete transmission failure on the 2008 Dodge RAM 1500?
2 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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