The Most Common Reasons For MOT Failure

The top causes of not passing your vehicle's MOT

Performed yearly and a legal requirement for any vehicle over 3 years old, the MOT test ensures your car is safe and roadworthy. It’s also an opportunity to make sure that the vehicle is meeting environmental standards via an emissions test. If a car doesn’t meet the required standards, it’s classed as an MOT failure, and the fault concerned needs to be fixed before it can be passed.    

As a trusted MOT centre in Glastonbury, we’ve seen our fair share of MOT failures, and whilst we’re quick and experienced at putting them right, we know it can cause delays and unexpected expense for the car’s owner. Keeping an eye on the general condition of your vehicle and recognising when a fault with it could pose an issue come MOT time, and getting it fixed beforehand, will give you a greater chance of sailing through this important annual event. 

Here are some of the most common MOT failures… 

Lights 

Lights and signals that don’t work make up a large portion of MOT failures - and it’s not always due to a blown bulb. If the bulb itself works but the wiring is faulty, this will need to be rectified before the car can pass its MOT. Smashed or cracked glass over the light could cause a failure too. For example, if a brake light was damaged and the bulb showed through as a white light instead of red, that would be a failure. 

View obstructions 

It’s common for motorists to hang decorations and air fresheners from the interior mirror, but this is a big no-no if you want to pass your MOT. They can affect your view of the road, and are therefore considered an MOT failure. This goes for cracks and chips in the windscreen that fall within the driver’s field of vision, or damage anywhere on the windscreen that measures over 4cm. 

Tyres 

If you regularly hit the road, watch out for your tyres slipping below the legal limit - it’s an instant MOT failure! The legal limit is 1.6mm, and ensuring your tyres stay above it will keep you both legal and safe, especially in wet or icy conditions. 

Suspension 

The UK roads are notoriously peppered with potholes, and hitting one could have compromised your suspension. Cracks and worse can be the result of hitting a pothole, so if you’ve had a run-in with a road surface recently, you may want to get your suspension checked over before MOT time arrives. 

Registration plate 

Being identifiable on the road is a legal requirement, so anything that may prevent the police, pedestrians and other road users from being able to see your registration plate will fail your MOT. Damage, dirt, fading or having a missing plate completely will see the MOT fail, so make sure everything is as it should be on that front. 

MOTs in Glastonbury

At Avalon Motor Company, our fully trained technicians undertake MOTs on any make and model for our customers across Glastonbury and beyond. We also offer FREE MOTS for life when you buy a car from Avalon Motor Company! Having purchased a qualifying vehicle from Avalon Motor Company, you are entitled to free MOT inspections for life. Definition of ‘life’ is for the length of time that you actually own the vehicle and are the registered keeper. Definition of ‘qualifying vehicles’ means all vehicles sold on a retail basis. See the full T&Cs for our FREE MOTs for Life offer here.