Other body or interior problem on the 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee
5 crashes 3 injuries 8 of the 87 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 body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee report other body or interior problem at a median of 115,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 20 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 65,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 101,110 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.
5% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65,440 miles | 100,002 miles | 115,000 miles | 146,050 miles | 166,550 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, 5 a crash and 3 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 $200–$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 30 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 548; the 1997 has 87. 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 purchased this 1997, jeep grand cherokee from broadway volkswagen on auto row in oakland ca. At the time the odometer read 48,080k. Two weeks ago the car stopped running while I was driving it. I had to have it towed to albera bros. Jeep/chrysler dealership where I?ve taken the vehicle since I purchased it. I also purchased a warranty, for $1500 at the time that I purchase the vehicle, which was contained in the contract of the automobile installment payments. The warranty was to cover all repair that is cover for 72 months or 100k miles. I contacted the warranty company, warentech, who's headquarters are in texas and was advised that they would have to send someone out to look at the car. Someone did come out look at the car and took pictures. After a few days I contacted warentech and was advised that they would have to review the information and would get back to me. After several more days I contacted warentech again. I was advised that they needed me fax them my maintenance records verifying that I had maintained the vehicle. I faxed warentech copies of all recent maintenance records. After two or three more days, I once…
Hood was recently opened for normal checks of engine. The hood did shut all the way. After driving about 5 miles at the speed of about 45 the hood came unlatched and flew up. The hood is unrepairable, hood and hinges must be replaced.*ak
Dt*: the contact stated while driving 70mph the hood flew upward with limited visibility. The contact managed to pull over without incident. Due to the damaged hood which was bent vertically in front of the windshield, the vehicle was towed to an automotive body repair shop to await inspection.
Also reported on the 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Other powertrain problem
Other fuel system problem
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Differential or transfer case failure
ABS module or sensor failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 87 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 body or interior problem happen on the 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
Across 20 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 115,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 100,000 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 body or interior problem on the 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
87 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