1998 Dodge Intrepid at 85,000 miles
You did not give a mileage, so this uses 85,000 — the median reported failure mileage for this model year, which is a rough stand-in for “a typical example of this car”. Put your real reading in the box below for an answer about your car.
At 85,000 miles on this car
At 85,000 miles on a 1998 Dodge Intrepid, 17 of the failure modes other owners have reported already have their median report at or below your reading, and 4 more fall inside the window where they are usually reported. The heaviest of the ones already due is steering rack, gear or tie rod failure.
Already past the median 17
Half of all reports of these failures came in at or below where your car is now.
- Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure 31k
- Other visibility problem 62k
- Other body or interior problem 85k
- Radiator or coolant leak 37k
- Complete transmission failure 55k
- Excessive oil consumption 85k
- Water pump failure 17k
- Audio or connectivity failure 72k
- Airbag failed to deploy in a crash 76k
- Cruise control failure 78k
- Other lighting problem 83k
- Catalytic converter failure 51k
5 more.
You are in the window 4
Your reading falls inside the middle half of reports for these.
Typically later 16
Reported further down the road than where you are.
- Engine sensor failure 86k
- Thermostat failure 90k
- Cooling fan failure 90k
- Overheating 91k
- Other speed control problem 92k
- Other brake problem 94k
- Other powertrain problem 95k
- Stalling while driving 97k
- Oil leak 103k
- Loss of power steering 110k
- No-start or intermittent start failure 112k
- Headlight failure or clouding 114k
4 more.
Timing unknown 17
Reported, but too few owners gave an odometer reading to place them.
- Premature brake pad or rotor wear 14×
- ABS module or sensor failure 9×
- Wiring harness or short circuit 7×
- Lifter, cam or cylinder-deactivation failure 6×
- Seat belt or retractor failure 6×
- Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault 3×
- Other suspension problem 3×
- Head gasket failure 2×
- Other wheel or tire problem 2×
- Engine bay fire 1×
- Engine knock or bearing noise 1×
- Shifter, linkage or stuck-in-park failure 1×
5 more.
Why the list is generic until you type a number
Every figure below is a comparison against your odometer, so with no reading given the page has to pick one: 85,000 miles, roughly what a 1998 car covers at 12,000 miles a year. A reading 30,000 miles either side of that moves failures between the columns, which is the difference between a useful list and a generic one.
Already inside the reported range
17 failure modes on the 1998 Dodge Intrepid have a median reported mileage at or below 85,000: steering rack, gear or tie rod failure (median 30,000 miles, 20 reports), other visibility problem (median 60,000 miles, 18 reports), other body or interior problem (median 85,000 miles, 18 reports), radiator or coolant leak (median 35,000 miles, 13 reports), complete transmission failure (median 55,000 miles, 9 reports) and excessive oil consumption (median 85,000 miles, 7 reports).
These are the ones worth mentioning to a mechanic by name at the next service. Being past a median is not being overdue — it means the reports cluster below where you are now, so if the failure was going to be typical, it would already have happened.
The window you are in now
4 further modes are reported in a band that includes 85,000 miles: complete engine failure or seizure (71k to 100,000 miles), other engine problem (74k to 105,000 miles), timing chain, belt or tensioner failure (67k to 95,000 miles) and other electrical problem (81k to 145,000 miles). These are the ones to watch on this car over the next few thousand miles.
A window here is the 25th to 75th percentile of reported mileages, so it holds the middle half of the reports and excludes the tails on both sides.
Still ahead of you
16 further modes sit above your reading, the nearest being engine sensor failure at a median of 85,000 miles. On a car you intend to keep, these are the ones that decide whether it is worth keeping.
What this list is not
It is a reading of what owners of other 1998 Dodge Intrepids reported, and at what odometer reading they reported it. It is not a maintenance schedule, not a diagnosis, and not a prediction about this car: two identical cars with different service histories are not the same car.
Complaints are filed voluntarily, mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers, and a failure mode with few reports has a wide window even when the median looks precise. Modes with fewer than 8 dated reports are shown without percentiles for that reason.
Where 85,000 miles falls on the curve
The three columns above sort the failure modes one by one. This is the same evidence in aggregate: every dated report on this model year, stacked up in the order the odometer readings arrived. The dashed line marked you is where your car sits. How much of the line is to the left of that mark is how much of this model year's reported trouble is, on the evidence, already behind you.
About 41% of the dated reports on this model year had already been filed by 85,000 miles. That is the share of the problems that show up in this record, not of the problems this car will have. A further 1 report came in above the top of the scale, which is why the line stops short of the top.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
- Dashed the mileages called out above
A steep early climb means a car whose reports cluster young, which is the pattern of a defect rather than of wear. A line that only gets going past six figures is the opposite. Neither shape says anything about the specific car in your driveway, and a curve built from a few dozen readings can be moved by one owner with a talkative afternoon.
Full report for the 1998 Dodge Intrepid Compare with another car
Questions this page answers
What should I expect at 85,000 miles on a 1998 Dodge Intrepid?
17 of the failure modes owners have reported on the 1998 Dodge Intrepid have a median report at or below 85,000 miles, and 4 more fall inside the mileage window where they are usually reported. That is a watch list drawn from other owners, not a prediction about this car.
How to use the three columns. The left column is the list to hand a mechanic before you buy, and to check the service history for if you already own the car. The middle column is what to budget for this year. The right column is not a reprieve — it is a reminder that a used car has a bill schedule, and this is roughly where it falls. All of it is drawn from 493 owner complaints about this exact model year, not from a maintenance manual. How the percentiles are computed.
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