Other electrical problem on the 2004 Dodge RAM 2500
1 crash 2 fires 3 of the 26 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 2004 Dodge RAM 2500 report other electrical problem at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 21 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 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 137,000 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.
24% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23,000 miles | 37,990 miles | 98,000 miles | 145,000 miles | 160,000 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 and 2 a fire 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 2002, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 225,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 48; the 2004 has 26. 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.
I am owner of a 2004 dodge durango. Vin # 1d4hb48n04fxxxxxx. On tuesday, september 12, 2006 my wife (lori m. Murphy) noticed that all interior lights would not go off once the vehicle was in gear. This problem persisted throughout that day and at 10:00 p.m. I tried to get the lights to turn off to no avail. The lights were still on this morning (9/13/06) when my wife took the vehicle to aurora chrysler plymouth in aurora ohio. On the way to the dealership she noticed an electrical burning smell. After arriving and waiting about 2 hours, she was told that a chip had burned out on the circuit board for the instrument panel. The service personnel indicated the part needed for repair would be $587.00. I would like to refer to the NHTSA investigation # ea06015 to see if I have any recourse with daimlerchrysler for covering expenses for this repair. *nm
The software change that indicates that the parking gear is not properly engaged, goes off all the time. At the most inconvenient times. Like the middle of the night, at a quiet campground, when parking the truck. It seems that there is a better solution for the problem than sounding the horn. Maybe correct the problem. Also the horn goes off when backing the truck with the door open. I know it is supposed to do that with the "band aid fix" but when hooking up to trailers, it is often nice to leave the door open when backing. *tr
I did not have a accident, but my transmission began to fail in such a manner that the transmission did not know what gear it was supposed to be in. One day it would be fine and the next it might begin ok and then ten minutes later it would start off from a stop light in 2nd or 3rd gear and it was difficult to pull into traffic. Dodge is aware of the problem because the dealerships are stocking the internal transmission parts to fix it. My mechanic talked to a nearby dodge dealer to obtain the parts and they said they knew of the problem and had a good supply of parts if needed. We also spoke to two different transmission shops that said this was a common problem. The necessary parts that needed to be replaced to fix this were a governor compression solenoid and pressure switch. Both of which are located in the gear box just above the pan. The parts were only available from dodge and cost about $220.00 just for the parts. I would like to know if dodge has reported this problem. I have been in contact with them inquiring why they have not done a recall since they are aware of the problem and all they have told me so far is that it…
Also reported on the 2004 Dodge RAM 2500
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
Other suspension problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other body or interior problem
Airbag inflator rupture
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 26 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 2004 Dodge RAM 2500?
Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 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 2004 Dodge RAM 2500?
26 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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