DPF, EGR or DEF system failure on the 2015 RAM 1500
16 fires 16 of the 48 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 dpf, egr or def system failure gets reported
Owners of the 2015 RAM 1500 report DPF, EGR or DEF system failure at a median of 72,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 38 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 94,310 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45,690 miles | 59,862 miles | 73,000 miles | 105,000 miles | 140,000 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, 16 a fire is 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 $800–$5,000 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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2014 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 2015 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.
Electronic throttle control malfunction(lightning bolt), low power. Was told 1.5 weeks for appointment. 1 week later 'DPF 100% full, see dealer'. Dealer did forced regen, cleared codes, back to normal. I never received any warnings about DPF becoming full. No early regen notification.
There isn't enough room for the entire ordeal, but I will do my best to congest it. June 19th: went to dealer ship with check engine light, nobody there knew what it meant, and they erased it and told me not to worry about it unless it comes back. July 3rd: vacation trip, about 2 hours into driving, truck looses throttle, solid check engine light comes on, "service electronic throttle control" smoke coming from engine bay, smelled like plastic to me. Found what looked like a melted quarter sized boiling spot on the manifold? I believe. Checked that engine light was solid, and on june 19th was told if light is solid, it's safe to drive, if it's blinking shut off imediately. It was solid. Vacation's over, drive back to vegas at about 40-50mph (truck wouldn't go any faster) on blinkers the whole way with my fiancee in the passanger seat, and 3 year old son in the back seat. An hour ourside of vegas, truck was throwing flame balls and sparks out the rear, immediately pulled off to the desert, and evacuated my son and fiancee. Grabbed red bulls and green teas to douse the fire. Got the fire out after several minutes. If I didn't notice…
There isn't enough room for the entire ordeal, but I will do my best to congest it. June 19th: went to dealer ship with check engine light, nobody there knew what it meant, and they erased it and told me not to worry about it unless it comes back. July 3rd: vacation trip, about 2 hours into driving, truck looses throttle, solid check engine light comes on, "service electronic throttle control" smoke coming from engine bay, smelled like plastic to me. Found what looked like a melted quarter sized boiling spot on the manifold? I believe. Checked that engine light was solid, and on june 19th was told if light is solid, it's safe to drive, if it's blinking shut off imediately. It was solid. Vacation's over, drive back to vegas at about 40-50mph (truck wouldn't go any faster) on blinkers the whole way with my fiancee in the passanger seat, and 3 year old son in the back seat. An hour ourside of vegas, truck was throwing flame balls and sparks out the rear, immediately pulled off to the desert, and evacuated my son and fiancee. Grabbed red bulls and green teas to douse the fire. Got the fire out after several minutes. If I didn't notice…
Also reported on the 2015 RAM 1500
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
Other fuel system problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 48 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 dpf, egr or def system failure happen on the 2015 RAM 1500?
Across 38 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 72,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is dpf, egr or def system failure on the 2015 RAM 1500?
48 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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