Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault on the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500
1 crash 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.
When airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500 report airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 16 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 68,688 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.
31% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29,312 miles | 33,500 miles | 61,090 miles | 78,875 miles | 98,000 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, 1 a crash 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 $300–$1,600 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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 210,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
I purchased a 2012 dodge ram 1500 truck with slightly less than 36000 miles. The airbag light was going on and off intermittently thus indicating the airbags would not be deployed upon impact. I took the truck in to an authorized dodge dealership 7 times in an attempt to correct the problem. It seems at this point it is finally fixed (it sometimes takes 2-3 weeks before the problem recurs). The first time I took it into the dealership, they indicated that the airbag on the driver's side had been hardwired. According to the dealership, this was the fix for the problem at the time by chrysler, and this was verified by chrysler corp. There are many such complaints on the internet. Unfortunately, I do not feel that most individuals know where to report faulty problems in order to force a change. I spent approximately $2000. I am sure if the dealership had not stepped into help that the bill would have been closer to $4500. Corresponding with chrysler proved to be frustrating. I was told by chrysler that after I felt the problem was fixed I should fax the bills to them. The dealership even tried to get them to pay for the parts. I just…
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 dodge ram 1500. The contact stated that the air bag light was continuously illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for a diagnostic testing. The technician stated that the passenger air bag had been un-plugged and weight sensor had been removed. The technician decided to reset the air bag light, however, the weight sensor was not repaired. The contact believed that the vehicle had been tampered with. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 21,000. Updated 11/19/14*lj *js
Airbag light is on going to dealer this week doylestown, pa fred bean is there a recall yet for this problem for this VIN ? [xxx] [xxx] thank you information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).' *jb
Also reported on the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Fuel pump failure
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other powertrain problem
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
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 airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault happen on the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500?
Across 16 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault on the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500?
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