Seat belt or retractor failure on the 2013 RAM 1500
7 crashes 5 injuries 12 of the 15 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 seat belt or retractor failure gets reported
Owners of the 2013 RAM 1500 report seat belt or retractor failure at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 23rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 68,900 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.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38,000 miles | 38,000 miles | 58,598 miles | 97,000 miles | 106,900 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, 7 a crash and 5 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 $200–$900 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 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 170,000 miles.
By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 33; the 2013 has 15. 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.
While approaching an intersection the traffic light turned yellow. It required medium braking effort. When I applied the brakes the drivers power seat activated itself and mover ~ 2 inches forward which in turn ended up applying far more pressure on the brake pedal than was intended. Could have caused a vehicle behind me to hit my truck. Luckily there was no vehicle behind me at the time. I immediately check the placement of the seat belt to see if it could have activated the power seat switch. The seat belt was not near the power seat switch. *tr
Purchased truck certified used in oct 2015. Since then, I have had approximately 9 instances of my instrument panel (or cluster) completely shutting off while I am driving. When it shuts off, the screen in the middle completely goes black, the rpms and speedometer, and other gauges go to zero. After a second or 2, everything turns back on as if I had just started the vehicle (ram logo pops up, check engine light is on, oil temp light is on, gas light is light on, seatbelt light is on, ect). All gauges then get back to their previous readings, as far as I know, just before the reset. Each time this has occurred, I have been traveling anywhere from 35-55 MPH on a straight road. I have taken it to 2 dealerships to have them look at it with each time telling me if they can't duplicate the problem, there is nothing they can do. On a recent incident (9/27/16), it happened on the way to work, so I brought it in that day, as the last dealership instructed me to. Once again, they couldn't pin point the problem, but had contacted chrysler to see what they wanted them to do. Chrysler had them do a software update, and a week later I had it…
Tl* the contact owned a 2013 ram 1500. While driving 45 MPH, the contact crashed into another vehicle. None of the air bags deployed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer's insurance company (auto auctions inc, located at 1280 jackson st a, st paul, mn 55117; (651) 488-0581) where it was deemed destroyed. A police report was filed. There were no injuries. Neither the driver or side airbags deployed. The seatbelt was on but tossed around due to the seatbelt not holding in place. There was multiple bruises and injuries. The manufacturer was contacted at 800-992-1997 and stated that they would not be able to assist, and that the contact would have to speak with a higher authority. Case number: [xxx] was provided. The approximate failure mileage was 43,545.... .updated 11/16/17 *bf information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr
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 15 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 seat belt or retractor failure happen on the 2013 RAM 1500?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is seat belt or retractor failure on the 2013 RAM 1500?
15 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