This week? Next week? 
Yeah, really. At this point, I donāt know.
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I lived in Italy in the late '70s and when you hired someone (mechanic, mason, gardener, whomeverā¦) and you were waiting for the outcome, they often replied, āDomaniā which translates to āTomorrowā and if they seemed to have a bit of a smile and you pressed them, they might say, āDopo domainā which translates literally to āAfter tomorrow,ā but actually is closer to āWheneverā¦ā
Thatās pretty funny. 
So, I just spoke with the service manager. Said they completed the work last night; just have to put the catalytic converter back on and test drive it.
Said that the coating on both sides of the gaskets was completely worn down, which is why there were leaks. Said the noise is now gone. (He said they previously tested it without the catalytic converter attached and heard the noise.) Still, theyāre going to test drive it and make sure everything is good now.
The valve cover gaskets had been leaking for about 10-15 years, but it was a slow leak, so I didnāt deal with it. Would lose maybe a quart of oil between oil changes. Said they cleaned up the leaked oil, but that thereās a lot of oil thatās caked on there that they wonāt be able to get off.
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You are to be commended for your patienceā¦ I do not think I would have been so obliging with the waitā¦ Now all that remains is for you to āTest Drive Itā alsoā¦ Turn off the radio, and anything else that makes a distracting sound. then take it out on the road, City, Highway, city, highway, and city, you want to get that engine warmed up to full operating temperature and while you are driving in the city, you are more likely to be able to hear the various sounds, driving in on the highway gets the exhaust good and hot, and then back in the city where you are listening for strange sounds, back on the highway, and back in the city, all the while listening for strange soundsā¦
If there is anything amiss, you contact them immediately, donāt delay, they would probably say itās āsomething elseā¦ā
Good Luck and let us know how it goes and if itās not too personal, tell us what was done and how much it costs, be sure you get an itemized billā¦
Thatās good advice. Thanks!
Yeah, thereās a stretch of freeway access road that has the highway elevated next to it, and thereās a slope of ground up to the freeway. So you can hear sounds bouncing off the ground when you drive that stretch. That would be a good place to test it.
As for patience, yeah, you really need it with these guys. I go there because I found them to be very honest and had good prices. But theyāre incredibly disorganized. But things have gotten better over the years. But it seems that things are getting worse again.
Also, used to be that their prices were really low. They charged $80/hr for labor. Then, over a two-year period, it went up to $100, $120, and now itās $160. So itās not so cheap anymore. Still, I trust them in terms of being honest. They just have other issues.
As for cost, I asked the service manager if he could give me a break on the price, and he gave me a $140/hr rate, instead of $160. Hereās the breakdown:
So, total is $872.
For both the exhaust manifold gaskets and the valve cover gaskets, the quote says āgasketā (singular). But in both cases both gaskets are being replaced.
Also, the N/C for replacing the catalytic converter is because that was the replacement cat. Since they originally though the cat was the problem, and they replaced it, they were going to charge me for the replacement. But since it wasnāt the problem, they zeroed that out.
BTW, speaking of āpatience,ā as I noted, when I spoke to the service manager at 9 AM he said it was done, and the guy just had to reattach the cat and take it for a test drive. Said it should be ready by noon.
Well, itās now almost 3 and I havenāt heard anything. Called and texted him a half an hour ago, but havenāt heard back.
So, yeah, I guess it was too good to be trueā¦ 
UPDATE
Just spoke with the service manager. Well, it turns out that the exhaust manifold gasket wasnāt the issue after all. They put the cat back on, and the noise remained.
They then ordered a cat from their distributor, put it on, and the noise was gone. So it was the cat after all.
So my exhaust manifold gasket didnāt need replacing.
He said they heard a leak when they put the soapy water on it and listened with a stethoscope. Also they said that they heard the noise even with the catalytic converter off. But, apparently, that wasnāt what they were hearing, and that leak in the gasket wasnāt causing the noise.
So I talked to him about it, that I basically had the exhaust manifold gasket changed when it didnāt need it. He took $100 off the price of the cat ($380 instead of $480. My 3rd party cat cost me $275, which Iāll get a refund on when I return it.) He also said he wonāt charge me labor for replacing the cat.
That still left me with paying $350 labor to replace the exhaust manifold gasket (plus $20 for parts). He said heād reduce that to $280, and reduce the labor on the valve cover gaskets from $420 to $378.
So the total, with exhaust manifold gaskets, valve cover gaskets, and new cat will be $1,182.
If they had swapped out the cat with one of theirs originally, and avoided the whole exhaust manifold gasket thing, then it would have cost me:
Valve cover gaskets: $60
Valve cover gaskets labor: $480 (3 hrs @ $160)
Catalytic converter: $480
Replace cat labor: $160
So I would have ended up spending $1180 to replace the cat with one of theirs and do the valve cover gaskets (plus tax). So I guess itās a wash.
I expect they mean the expense to remove the caked-on oil on the engine would be more than you would likely be willing to pay. Your best bet is to probably leave well enough alone. Sometimes the caked-on oil is preventing an oil leak. Glad your Caravan is back on the road without the weird exhaust sounds. Sorry you incurred those unexpected expenses.
Thank you for the feedback, so often the members might go offline and research a new memberās problem, theyāll take the time of write out very involved instructions, attach photos and graphics, and a whole bunch more and then they might never hear back if it solved the problem or notā¦
The feedback lets the member know the advice was appreciated and it all goes into the searchable data for others who might also have a similar issueā¦
So to steal an old Esso Logo Sayingā¦
Happy Motoringā¦
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Thanks, George and LT! Appreciate it. And appreciate you guysā (and everyone elseās) support through this whole thing. This is one of the absolute craziest car repair situations Iāve ever dealt with, with everything that went wrong.
As a cherry on top, when I picked up my car, the trip odometer read 7,700 miles! The main odometer still showed the correct mileage, but the trip odometer read 7,700 miles, even though I reset it to zero when I last filled up the tank. Neither the service manager nor I could figure it out.
Then later I figured it out: after I last reset the trip odometer, they replaced the instrument cluster. And so the trip odometer reading was what was on the new (used) instrument cluster. The main odometer was reset by the carās computer. But the trip odometer remained unchanged.
But the strangeness of that was just the icing on the cake for the series of events that had happened with this. LOL
Oh, and side note: while they did replace the light bulbs in the 0-30 area of the speedometer, as I had told them those bulbs were out, when I got the car back, I noticed that the light bulbs in the 80-120 MPH portion of the speedometer are out. I guess they didnāt check all the bulbs. But Iām not going to worry about it. Itās not worth brining the car back for that, especially since Iām not planning on going over 80 MPH! LOL
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The saga continues!
OK, I said in the last post that I wasnāt going to worry about the speedometer being dim past 80 MPH. However, thatās not actually the situation.
I just went out for a drive, after dark, with the engine cold. And the whole right side of the speedometer, from 60-120 MPH was completely dark!
Then, as I drove and the engine warmed up, the right side started getting brighter. First 70 MPH, then 80, then 90, over a 5-10 minute period.
Once 90 was visible it stopped getting brighter. 90-120 could be seen, but was dim.
So this is really weird. What would cause the lights to get gradually brighter from left to right as the engine warms up?
Also, when I brought it back because 0-30 MPH was dark, everything else was lit. They replaced the bulbs in 0-30, but now 60-120 has this problem. So this is really weird.
Any ideas about what might be causing this?
I cannot offer a specific answer, but I would test the dash dimmer switch, back and forth, bright to off several timesā¦ I do not know how the dash might be grounded, by thatās worth a checkā¦
My son bought a used Chevy van in the early '90, and the van was about 5-years old. The seller told my son that the dash lights did not work and he had had it worked on and they did not solve it. So the seller just ignored itā¦
My son worked on it, he paid and auto electrical shop to trace it down and it was only resolved when they replaced the dash, never did figure it outā¦
Now, do you remember what I wrote about taking it back right away for any issues, the light problem might only be the tip of the iceberg and next week the gas gauge starts acting up and the temp goes through the roof againā¦
You posted about this in your posting #30, so it is not anything newā¦
Yes, something not grounded makes sense, especially since it was fine previously (when I brought it back for the 0-30 MPH light problem), but now itās not. Maybe a wire came loose or something. (Still doesnāt really explain when it would change as the engine warmed up.)
I actually already tried the dash dimmer switch. No change.
And, yes, I texted the service manager right away, and he responded. So heās aware of the problem. I probably wonāt bring it back this week (I need a break! LOL), but probably next week. Plus, thatād give it more time to see if there are any other problems.
This whole thing is so crazy, how there have been so many problems with this!
Iām not following what you mean by āthe temp goes through the roof again.ā
A failing fuel gauge on a 20 year old van is not unusual. A used instrument cluster with a failing PC board is not unusual.
A customer supplying inferior replacement parts and putting the technicians through hell, that must stop. These guys arenāt making any money if they spend all week working on this old van.
The panel dimmer switch sends a signal to the body computer, the body computer controls the panel brightness. If one section of the cluster illumination is out of control, the problem is likely inside the cluster.
The fuel gauge didnāt fail until they worked on the car. No issue with it before.
The noise from the cat was (wrongly) diagnosed as being the exhaust manifold gasket. Originally they were going to get an AutoZone cat and see if the noise went away (which it would have; end of story). But the mechanic wrongly diagnosed the noise as being the gasket, causing me to get an unnecessary gasket replacement.
No one is āputting these guys through hellā! It was their own issue that they misdiagnosed the noise. Had they rightly diagnosed it, I would have simply paid them for a different cat and paid them to replace the cat. No one made them misdiagnose it.
But because the mechanic wrongly believed the noise was coming from the manifold when the cat was removed, he was sure it was the gasket.
If one section of the cluster illumination is out of control, the problem is likely inside the cluster.
Thatās fine, except that it was working fine when they first replaced the cluster, except for the 0-30 bulbs. Then, after they replaced the bulbs, this new problem arose. That speaks to there being some sort of grounding problem or perhaps bulbs that came loose. Or perhaps the cluster was damaged when they worked on it.
These guys arenāt making any money if they spend all week working on this old van.
I donāt know which āguysā youāre referring to. The mechanics are paid hourly. The business itself still made money on the deal, including the unnecessary gasket replacement.
And as for āspend all week working on this old vanā ā the car sat idle for 3 days last week, until the service manager came back, and I contacted him, and then they spent an hour diagnosing it as the manifold gasket. They then replaced it (which they were paid for).
And when it turned out that that wasnāt the issue, it was just a question of ordering a cat and sticking it on there and test driving it. So youāre greatly exaggerating the situation.
Sorry, I did not read the whole post, so I am guessing a used dash was put in.
Metal shrinks in the cold and expand in the heat. there are a lot of soldered joints on the circuit board that tend to crack with age. as it heats up the solder expands slightly making a connection and the dash light comes on.
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That makes sense. Except when they first installed the used cluster, all the lights worked, except the 0-30 lights. They replaced those two bulbs and now they work fine. However, it was only after they replaced the 0-30 lights that the 60-120 section started having the problem.
So maybe they cracked the soldered joints when they removed the cluster and now it has a problem. That would make sense. Otherwise, it doesnāt make sense that it would be working perfectly until they replaced those bulbs. Unless itās something else, like a ground or a loose bulb or something.
I use a portable mp3 player to listen to Car Talk podcasts. Every once in a while the audio stops working. I have to take it apart and re-solder the audio mini-jack to the circuit board, b/c the solder joints cracked. Common problem, the older the circuit boards are, the more likely this will occur. Anything that puts a force on an older circuit board can cause it, just touching it, or a heat/cooling cycle.
So it sounds like Iām stuck with it being like that. Not the biggest deal in the world. Lights up to 90 MPH once the engine warms up. Just a little annoying to look at.
Anyway, Iāll bring it in and have them look at it and see if itās something simple. Otherwise, I guess I wonāt worry about it.
Noticed today that the car has a rough idle ā vibrates when sitting still. Iām guessing thatās from the manifold gasket replacement. Hopefully just a minor adjustment needed. So Iāll note that to them when I bring it in as well.
The repair saga that never endsā¦