Other brake problem on the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500
1 crash 1 of the 29 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 brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500 report other brake problem at a median of 35,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles, from 19 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 70,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 49,300 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
63% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20,500 miles | 30,000 miles | 33,564 miles | 50,500 miles | 69,800 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–$1,800 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 135,000 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.
The factory installed trailer brake controller outputs the same voltage at all settings from 0-10. This results in the brakes of my lightweight trailer locking up whenever the brakes are applied and heavier trailers will not lockup in hard braking tests. *tr
While driving down the road the engine suddenly dies. All power steering, brakes, etc are gone. I have to coast to a stop and restart the vehicle. This has happened at least 6 times since purchasing the vehicle in august of 2012. One day it happened several times in succession. The most recent incident took place on june 5, 2014. I have taken it to the dealership and they will not do anything as they can not recreate the issue while it is in the shop. I am very concerned as this is the same issue that is happening with the current huge gm recall involving faulty ignition switches . I pull a travel trailer with this vehicle and this is a very dangerous issue to have happening. Up until now it has not happened while towing the trailer but I am extremely concerned for my safety. *js
Brakes mushy, go all way to floor, when trying to pump brakes truck takes off knocking 79 year old woman to the ground hurting her. Took to dodge dealership they couldn't find anything. It did it again took it to another dodge dealership, they suggested to take it back to the original dodge dealership. Total times of it happening 6 times with the last time truck shutting itself off in the middle of the road. Backup display is freezing up and telling to get out to look when nothing is there. Dealership james hodge motor co. Thinks it the computer board but they don't want to do anything about it, because there's no recall for what's happening. I did some research and found something on the brakes, when I went back to print it out, the article was not there anymore. Reimers, paris, texas any others that this is happening to please report for safety. *tr
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 29 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 brake problem happen on the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500?
Across 19 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2012 Dodge RAM 1500?
29 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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