Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure on the 2013 RAM 1500
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 19 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 liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure gets reported
Owners of the 2013 RAM 1500 report liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 100 miles at the tenth percentile to 75,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 72,920 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.
27% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 miles | 20,540 miles | 50,000 miles | 61,000 miles | 73,000 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 crash and 1 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 $250–$1,500 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2021 at 70,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 27; the 2013 has 19. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 dodge ram 1500. While driving approximately 50-55 MPH during inclement weather conditions, the contact accelerated to 65 MPH and the vehicle spun out of control. The vehicle flipped over landing once on the passenger side and then continued to flip over onto the driver side, causing the tailgate to fracture. The air bags failed to deploy. The driver sustained neck and back pains including abrasions on the legs that required medical attention. The front passenger sustained lacerations to the head that required medical attention. The vehicle was towed to an impound lot. A police report was filed. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 15v459000 (air bags), but the dealer stated that the part was not available for the recall repair. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 41,000. Parts distribution disconnect. Updated 12/30/15*lj *tr*dt the consumer provided photos. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 ram 1500. While driving various speeds, the tailgate inadvertently opened. The failure recurred a second time while driving at a slow rate of speed. As a result, the items in the truck bed fell onto the roadway. The vehicle was taken to schlossmann dodge city chrysler jeep ram fiat (19100 w capitol dr., brookfield, wi 53045, (262) 790-9000), but the failure was unable to be duplicated. The contact scheduled another appointment with the dealer in an attempt to have the failure diagnosed and repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 62,000. The VIN was not available.
Our 2013 ram tailgate opens while we are driving down the road. It has been doing this since we purchased 3 years ago. This has been recalled on 2015-2018 vehicles, what about the 2013's
Also reported on the 2013 RAM 1500
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
Loss of power steering
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 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 liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure happen on the 2013 RAM 1500?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure on the 2013 RAM 1500?
19 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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