Premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When premature brake pad or rotor wear gets reported
There are 5 reports of premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 45,000 miles. It is the 48th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 16,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $300–$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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 381; the 2005 has 5. 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 a 2004 special edition jeep grand cherokee in feb 2003. This vehicle is strictly used for pleasure and currently has less then 18,000 miles. I do not live in the mountains where brakes are used excessively. The brake rotors were warped at 12,100 miles. The dealership refused to warranty and said there was not issue with the braking sytem. They are once again warped with now less then 18,000 miles. I called the dealership who blew me off and placed a complaint with chrysler who is yet to respond, however I was given a reference number, reference number: 13282345 I had the rotors cut the first time and replaced with a gm product the second time. I did some research and know I am not alone in this and also noted that the company issued a notice to the dealerships in june of 04, yet they continue to deny any problem.*ak
I read in the news today that the NHTSA is investigating the brakes on a number of gm products. I wish that you had included jeep grand cherokee brakes for 1999 through 2004 models. The design is such that pulsation, sometimes severe, occurs after 10k to 15k miles due to the rotors warping. My dealer either resurfaces the existing rotors or replaces them at no charge. In 1999 the dealer blamed the problem on a new design and supplier problems. My 2004 model had to be taken in for pulsating front brakes at 18,500 miles, and I was told that chrysler was locked into a contract with their supplier that they could not break, which is why substandard parts continue to be supplied but replaced at no charge. For chrysler to go through 5 model years knowing they were supplying substandard brake components is inexcusable! The brake problem with their 1999 model was an engineering and/or supplier problem. The brake problem with the 2004 model is a senior management problem. Brake work done on my 1999 model and 2004 model was done exclusively by the local jeep dealer, and those records are in their system should you wish to pursue this. The…
During a recent brake job, I removed my brake rotors. My jeep grand cherokee (2005) has a combination disk and drum brake system in the rear in a single rotor. The drum brakes are for the emergency brake system. When I removed the rear rotors one of the drum brake pads fell off on the floor. I checked the other three pads from both rear tires and all of them were on the verge of coming off. They appear to be glued on and glue failed. These are factory installed brake pads. This seems like a safety issue. I should also note that these drum brake pads had virtually no wear. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 5 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 5 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 premature brake pad or rotor wear happen on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
5 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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