1999 Dodge Caravan problems
Owners have filed 745 complaints with NHTSA about the 1999 Dodge Caravan. Air bags is the most reported problem area, at 16% of complaints. After that come engine (15%) and transmission (13%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 745 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 16% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 64 and 21
- Injuries and deaths
- 45 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 84,000 miles 310 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 11 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 22 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 56 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 57 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 56 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 46 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 21 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 16 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 5 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 6 |
| 200k+ miles | 14 |
What the data shows
Among the 310 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 84,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 89,000 miles (66 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 64 complaints mention a crash; 21 complaints mention a fire; 45 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1999 ranks 7th most-complained-about out of 26 model years of the Dodge Caravan with enough data (465 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 5 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Air bag failure: (allstate claim# 4706508639, policy# 099082579) both front airbags failed in my 1999 dodge caravan (4 cyc) in a collision involving multiple impacts, rear and front. My est. Speed was 35. Est. Speed of person who hit me from behind was 55. The person who hit me was inattentive and never applied brakes before hitting me. I had 6 teenagers in my vehicle at the time. I was hit 3 times from behind, which forced me to hit the truck in front of me twice.
My wife loaded the kids in the van. My son removed his seatbelt. My wife got out of the driver set to put him back in his seat, and my daughter reached over and accidently put the van in gear. The van took off hitting the side of my home and taking the passenger side door off. Dodge said they do not have to install a device to prevent the transmission from going in to gear with out depressing the brake first (other manufactures d0). Does this go under standard 102?
Consumer was resting along side of road and smelled smoke, upon starting vehicle it ignited in the engine compartment, injuring consumer, claim 22-v641-822. *slc
Received safety recall for clockspring, took to dealer for repairs. They also removed and repaired engine sensors .
Our belts sips off during wet weather"five times we replaced the "s" belt and the tensioners,waterpump,overheating our 2nd yr of owership.now the 3rd yr of transmissions leaking,the ABS light came on while driving at 35MPH w/children in car ,starting to brake causing to slow way down in traffic and made a chime sound,the horn went off and it got hot fast causing the car to shut down. Thank god there was room to get over. All the lights were flickering all over the dashboard.