Computer went dead at only 33k!

[Petesleaf]

I parked my beautifully running 2000 Sable after enjoying a short ride in a nice low mileage car with ice cold air. When I came back out later and started it up I noticed that it was running rough and the AC was blowing but not cold anymore. As I drove it home it would barely go over 45mph! The next day I started it and noticed it was blowing some black exhaust smoke out the tail pipe. No Check Engine lights came on. I took it down to Autozone. They told me they couldn't check the codes if there wasn't an engine light. The Haynes manual said that more expensive code readers could read advanced, stage two codes, so I took it to the dealer. They put it on their more expensive machine which showed a bad MAF code. Mass Air Flow Sensor. Made sense, as that is one component that sends a signal to the PCM (power control module) to adjust the fuel/air mixture. Alas! the black smoke. This part is easy to replace but not cheap. Then they found there was no signal to the A/c compressor and no check engine light. Their computer then agreed that the whole PCM had failed for some reason thus no computer to send a signal to the check engine light on the instrument panel. Well, the Haynes book said the PCM is one of the most expensive parts to replace (around $350 not counting labor). I showed it being a small rectangular box right behind the engine with only one screw holding on the wiring harness and two screw holding it to the firewall. I looked at it when I got the car back and could see the ground straight down below it so I thought maybe it could have got sprayed with some water off the road and eventually some internal components corroded and it fried causing failure to the MAF as well. Then I got to thinking that I bought this car used. Maybe the dealer cleaned up the engine with a pressure cleaner. A big No No for modern day fuel injected engines loaded with sensors that will corrode, short out and fail after water or chemical cleaning thus reading high resistance and a sensor failure/check engine light. I recently had three other problems with this car of only 33,000 miles. The heater core and the AC condensor both started leaking and they had to remove the whole dashboard to replace them. The front engine mount slid over on it's bushing and started causing a terrible tapping rattling sound like it was comming from under the dash. All of these problems were repaired at the dealership and everthing would have come to around $2000 yet I was careful enough to buy the extended maintenance warranty that covered everything, less a small deductable, for an additional $900 when I bought this lemon. I really love this car but no car should give you this much trouble in such a short time. Three visits to the dealership in two months. I had to rent a car twice once for four days and once for two days while they worked on it and waited for parts to come in. I'm getting rid of it and hoping for better luck in the future with possibly a Toyota ugh. Hope this helps Sable and Taurus owners.