Parking brake failure on the 2016 RAM 1500
7 crashes 2 injuries 9 of the 20 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 parking brake failure gets reported
Owners of the 2016 RAM 1500 report parking brake failure at a median of 20,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 30,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 35,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 30,720 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
82% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,280 miles | 10,000 miles | 17,800 miles | 30,000 miles | 37,000 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, 7 a crash and 2 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–$1,300 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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 1,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2022 carries the most reports, with 200; the 2016 has 20. 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.
Vehicle has rolled out of my driveway about 8 feet from its original location when parked. Vehicle was placed into park. Vehicle was not running, emergency brake was not set. Engine was off in all cases
On dec 22 I pulled up to my fianc's school put the 2016 ram 1500 in park my foot was still on the break. I took my seatbelt off and so did my fianc. Took my foot of the break and the truck went forward. Looked down verified the shifter was in park fiance verified also and the d light was blinking on my dial shifter but was turned to park. Put the emergency break on turned the key of turned the key back on and low and behold it was in park and p was lit up. This is the 2nd time this has rolled forward while in park. Last time it took my garage door out. I filed a previous complaint 10936408 about that incident but wanted to put in a complaint for this incident also. This is getting to be quite dangerous. I do use the emergency brake when I park now. Hard habit to get into when your vehicle is an automatic but I am getting in the habit. I am just happy that it was after school hours and no little kids walked in front of the vehicle when this happened that could have been bad real bad.. This happened in a public school parking lot truck was at a full stop and shifter was turned all the way to park but d light started blinking once…
The truck was in park and turned on and not moving on a flat surface in a parking garage without the emergency brake engaged. As I attempted to get into the vehicle it started to roll. I am 4'11 and the truck did not have a step. I attempted to climb into the vehicle twice and on the second time I fell to the ground and injured my left knee as I could not get proper footing to get into the truck. My husband was able to stop the truck from the passenger side by getting his foot to the break as the shift knob would not work. *****this is a truck that was rented from budget rental car******
Also reported on the 2016 RAM 1500
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Other fuel system problem
Other powertrain problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 parking brake failure happen on the 2016 RAM 1500?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 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 parking brake failure on the 2016 RAM 1500?
20 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