Hey guys, I'm new to this forum and I've spent a few days lurking before posting this. I just bought a 96 blazer and it seems I've inherited a couple issues with my purchase. A few hours after taking ownership of the vehicle the abs light came on, had the code pulled and it was a "c1286 steering sensor malfunction". The next day the SES light came on and it seemed like i basically lost first gear, the next morning i went to bring it to the shop and the light had cleared and the vehicle was shifting normally. This problem would come and go for the next week. Finally got the code pulled and it was showing a shift solenoid code and unfortunately i don't have the exact code. I brought the blazer to a local shop and they're saying the shift solenoids are good and its my PCM, they cant find any abs codes but the light is still on. So now the quote has gone from $150.00 to $500.00 . This brings me to my questions.

Does this make sense to any of you guys?
Does this price seem fair ?
Is replacing the PCM difficult? I have found a couple places that will sell me the PCM with programming to my VIN for under $100.00 shipped with a 30 day return policy and 1 year warranty. I'm starting to think this shop is taking me for a ride. Thanks in advance for any help, and I tried looking for posts related to these issues and while i found a ton of good info none really answering these questions, sorry if this was addressed in another post.

 

Yes , shift 'noids A & B have specific failure indicators ... ABS codes are NOT eraseable nor readable by a normal scan tool - if Your local shop is trying to diagnose Your issues using a hand-help OBD2 scanner it will not display the stored ABS or other BCM codes . Go elsewhere to have accurate diagnostic done . Talk to a service writer at a GM dealership and work a deal on the cost for scanning. It works more often than not these days