Last summer I noticed my van started to sound like it had a bad lifter. After opening the hood I had seen it was a little black around the exhaust port closest to the trans. I grabbed the head of the bolt it was way loose, both of them were. So I checked all of them and the bolts were loose on the other side closest to the trans. I checked them today and they were loose again. Why would the same bolts come loose all the time? Is this a regular issue because of the heating and cooling cycle it goes through?

 

Hey, I know this is an old thread, but on my 2000 T&C I noticed same thing, exhaust manifold bots closest to transmission were loose
Then more recently I got a 2002 T&C and the same issue... this is pretty bad, loosing faith on these cars
I can only assume because they're closest to where all the movement in the exhaust system happens that they get loose eventually. May have to use some type of that blue liquid for threads but idk if that stands up to high temps.
This has to be a wide-spread issue, and people just not noticing it - and I'm surprised if it's not a recall for these