Gauges can take anywhere from four days to two weeks to heal. It is best to wait about one week until you change or go up a size in gauges, so that they can continue to heal properly and avoid infections.
The PTR is currently up and running for patch 3.3. I am not sure how long it will take until the next patch testing phase, but the only answer from Blizzard is "soon."
Is it all the gauges or some? You make have to take the instrumental cluster apart. Make sure all the hardness for the gauges are all connected.
Take a look at the gauges. At least one of them is out of it's normal parameter.
In About 2 weeks you can take it out...
until you use it or until you take it out of the box.
Take it into the shop
Depends on the person
All gauges will shrink if they are not completely healed. If you take them out before they are healed and leave them out for long enough, they will close completly. They may shrink a bit if they are relatively new, but you should always save your used tapers in case that does happen. Be sure to never skip a size in gauges, or it could heal the wrong way and close up faster. If the 00 gauges are fairly old, a single day couldn't do much harm, as long as you put plugs or tapers back in to keep them from shrinking more.
You don't say what kind of car but most require the gauges to be removed to take it off.
Ear gauges can indeed close. I have head several stories about peoples' ear gauges closing over time, some even being near size 00. Ear gauges can close over time if you don't wear a plug or tunnel in it. If the gauge is small, it will take less time for it to close, unlike BIG gauges - which could take around 2 months. One secret is to rub hemerroid cream on your ears about twice a day first your ears will swell but later when your lobes go back to normal the holes will be smaller. However, if your ears were gauged above a 00, they will never close entirely without surgery, which currently runs about $800 an ear.
Until your pleasured enough...
6 weeks :)