Other visibility problem on the 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee
1 fire 1 of the 183 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 visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee report other visibility problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 51,000 miles and a quarter after 86,000 miles, from 145 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 113,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 73,000 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.
7% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40,000 miles | 51,474 miles | 70,000 miles | 86,000 miles | 113,000 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 fire 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 $150–$1,400 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 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 1,900 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 92,500 miles.
By volume the 2002 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.
My jeep is only a year and a half old and I already have to replace the door\regulator motor for the power window. The vehicle has only 39,000 miles and that's 3,000 more than the warranty covers. I ordered the part from the local dealer and its on a month back order. I asked the dealer if that might be a red flag that there is a problem!. *ak
On dual climate controls, one side of the vent will not let hot air circulate but blows just cold air. Will not defrost on one side . After talking to other jeep owners this seems to be a commam problem.*ak
2002 grand cherokee limited has a known problem with the dual climate control system. A door in the system routinely breaks or strips as soon as the vehicle has passed the manufacturers warranty end date. One side(drivers) of the system works as advertised, however the passenger side will only blow extremely cold air. The cost to rectify this anomaly is around $800 at a jeep dealership. From reading several automotive repair forums on the internet, this problem is occurring in a very high number, probably percentage of vehicles. Supposedly jeep is aware of the defective part used in the system and is not doing anything about it. At what point is an auto manufacturer required to issue a recall? Is there anything consumers can do to force the maker of the vehicle to fix defective parts?. *jb
Also reported on the 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Radiator or coolant leak
Other body or interior problem
Blower motor or climate control failure
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 183 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 visibility problem happen on the 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
Across 145 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 51,000 miles and a quarter after 86,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
183 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.2 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