Garage to avoid: Cumbo Stoke on Trent

pulliptears

Took our PT Cruiser in for a diagnostic after an engine light and was assured it was the EGR Solenoid. Purchased EGR Solenoid at a cost of £90 only to find that actually Cumbo got it wrong and it was the EGR Valve at fault. Fair enough, mistakes happen, but on replacing the Valve ourselves we found Cumbo hadn't even removed the old valve to test it, and had they done so they would have instantly known it was faulty as there was no resistance when you sucked on the tube.

As part of the diagnostic they helpfully gave the car a once over. Conclusion? We needed new bushes. Purchased bushes from elsewhere and took the car in to our independent family friend mechanic today only to be told that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the bushes on the car.

Add to this so many experiences of non returned calls, promised calls with quotes etc and Cumbo's Stoke on Trent are really one to avoid.

Strider590

pulliptears wrote: »

but on replacing the Valve ourselves we found Cumbo hadn't even removed the old valve to test it, and had they done so they would have instantly known it was faulty as there was no resistance when you sucked on the tube.

They plug it into a machine, they read a code and they replace a part.... There's no "fault finding" anymore.... There's not enough profit in employing experienced old school mechanics.

pulliptears

Strider590 wrote: »

They plug it into a machine, they read a code and they replace a part.... There's no "fault finding" anymore.... There's not enough profit in employing experienced old school mechanics.

We have a code reader here, we specifically had the conversation with them about the error code and how we wanted them to double check as their code reader only narrowed it down to the EGR System, yet our code reader pointed immediately to the EGR Valve. They assured us they could do that the good old fashioned way and find the problem, obviously they didn't.

Unfortunately for them we bought the Solenoid from a Merc Dealer (same engine) and fortunately for us Mercedes kindly refunded the part. This was after Cumbo couldn't find a part number for the solenoid and promised to call us back with a price....I'm still actually waiting for that phone call and its been a month nearly.

Hammyman

The EGR solenoid operates the valve. Its an easy mistake to make.

pulliptears

Hammyman wrote: »

The EGR solenoid operates the valve. Its an easy mistake to make.

Cumbo got it wrong and it was the EGR Valve at fault. Fair enough, mistakes happen, but on replacing the Valve ourselves we found Cumbo hadn't even removed the old valve to test it

As I said, i'll give them that, mistakes happen. However, the bushes clearly did not need replacing. Add to this the other issues with parts, quotes and phone calls and all in all its shoddy.