HI Guys,
Long time lurker first time poster. Great site, info from this site kept my van running immaculate till date. However I am running into two problems and i really need you guidance to fix them.

I have caravan's twin, 2002 T&C AWD with 3.8L & 105k miles.
First Problem)
Transmission oil is leaking from transmission solenoid area. I am wondering if I can just change solenoid gasket (instead of whole solenoid pack) to take care of leak?
Economics wise gasket is selling for 8$ & entire solenoid is selling for 255$ at local stealer.

Second Problem)
I shifted to synthetic motor oil a month back @ 103K miles. Van was running smoothly, when out of the blue whole bunch of motor oil leaked from oil pan gasket. I noticed some bolts were loose and tightened those.
But I am wondering if bolts got loose because of pressue buildup in oil pan!!!
Stealer had changed PCV valve @ 90K mile service (Before I found this site) Do you think I should change pcv valve (and anything else) or you think van is fine with just 15k mile on Pcv.

Thanks
Nitin

 

bolts don't loosen from pressure, and if you had that much pressure in the crank case, you'd have blown seals and oil in the air filter.

maybe the solenoid pack itself is leaking, sure you can just toss in a seal. I don't like the 'stealership' reference. if you don't like their prices, then shop elsewhere. heck go to a trans shop and buy a used one off their core pile, go the the junk yard and yank one off, buy one on ebay, etc.

I'd sell you a gasket for $3 with shipping if in the 48 states.

 

Hi Sapporo,
Thankyou very for the reply. Appreciate it.

Stealership term is coming from personal experience, not due to prices but for ripping me off. Offtopic but just to clarify I used to take my van for service only to local chrysler dealer, once someone complained on yelp about dealer not changing oil filter. So I put some scratches with a filer on oil filter to see if they change it. Sure enough after oil change my van came back with same old filter just cleaner & shinier but with same scratches. When I pointed to it.. first they tried to talk out of it, even told me filter doesn't need change ....That was the time when I decided to learn maintaining my van and found this site.

 

well, that's a bad story and hopefully not everyone is that dishonest, I know I'm not and I worked in several dealerships. Also, IDK why everyone seems to think a dealer is the only place to get parts and service. There are many top quality independent shops that do phenomenal work.