Other powertrain problem on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler
3 crashes 1 fire 4 of the 260 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Jeep Wrangler report other powertrain problem at a median of 17,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 30,000 miles, from 72 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 900 miles at the tenth percentile to 57,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 57,402 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
82% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 910 miles | 8,000 miles | 16,290 miles | 30,000 miles | 58,312 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, 3 a crash and 1 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 $400–$4,500 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 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 120,000 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.
Automatic transmission with 'electronic range select' allows a downshift with a move of the shift lever to the left when in 'd' drive. A move to the right up-shifts. Accidental downshifts occur frequently because of 'hair-trigger' nature of shift lever controls. The slightest, barely perceptible movement left causes a downshift, often unintended and unexpected. Up-shifting requires a definite movement to the right. Discussion of this issue with 2012 automatic wranglers drivers on jeep internet forums suggests a number of people experience and have a problem with this, while a number of drivers state their shifter requires a definite move left to downshift. I experience frequent, accidental downshifts on every trip due to this defect. Current mileage on this vehicle is 1100 miles. Sudden deceleration due to accidental downshifts can cause loss of traction on unpaved, gravel, icy or snowy roads, confusion, disorienting, and over-revving the engine. *kb
Automatic transmission with 'electronic range select' allows a downshift with a move of the shift lever to the left when in 'd' drive. A move to the right up-shifts. Accidental downshifts occur frequently because of 'hair-trigger' nature of shift lever controls. The slightest, barely perceptible movement left causes a downshift, often unintended and unexpected. Up-shifting requires a definite movement to the right. Discussion of this issue with 2012 automatic wranglers drivers on jeep internet forums suggests a number of people experience and have a problem with this, while a number of drivers state their shifter requires a definite move left to downshift. I experience frequent, accidental downshifts on every trip due to this defect. Current mileage on this vehicle is 1100 miles. Sudden deceleration due to accidental downshifts can cause loss of traction on unpaved, gravel, icy or snowy roads, confusion, disorienting, and over-revving the engine. *kb
This vehicle has auto stick shifting with an automatic transmission. For upshifts movement all the way to the right, hitting the end of travel is required the make a shift up in gear selection. On down shifts, just touching the shift handle and barely applying pressure activates a downshift. No movement of the shift handle is required. This way to sensitive. *tt
Also reported on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler
Other steering problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Airbag inflator rupture
Misfire or rough idle
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 260 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler?
Across 72 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 17,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 30,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler?
260 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.5 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