MOT Fail of the Month: April

Every year, millions of vehicles fail their MOT in the UK, with bulbs alone accounting for over 25% of all failure items, and wipers and visibility issues another major chunk. While most are simple fixes, some of the things turning up in test bays are anything but. Here’s this month’s selection of real MOT failures.

“If it moves… tie it on”

You know the sort.
Car turns up, looks alright from the outside… then you get it on the ramp and realise you’re in for a long half hour.

This month had a few like that….

The fuel tank “repair”

Straight out of DVSA examples.

Fuel tank straps had rotted away, fair enough, happens all the time.
But instead of replacing them, someone had decided to hold the tank up with wire.

Not even a proper fix. Just looped round and twisted.

DVSA have flagged this kind of thing as a serious risk, if the tank shifts or leaks, you’re into fire territory pretty quickly.

You see bodges every day, but that one makes you stop for a second.

The brake calliper special

Another one that’s actually been documented.

Brake calliper comes in… and instead of a proper bleed nipple, it’s got a radiator drain tap glued in.

On the brakes.

DVSA described it as a “Frankenstein repair”, and you can see why, wrong part, wrong job, and a good chance of losing brake pressure altogether.

Someone stood back after doing that and thought: “Yeah, that’ll be fine.”

The tyre that had given up

Not unusual to see worn tyres.
But this one was basically smooth.

DVSA testers have shared examples where there was almost no tread left at all, meaning there’d be little grip, especially in the wet.

You don’t need a gauge for that, you can see it from ten feet away.

The “restored” car with 26 fails

This one’s less funny for the owner.

A car turned up after being “restored”… and failed on 26 different points.

Including structural bits that clearly shouldn’t have been touched by whoever did the work.

That’s the kind of test where you’re not printing a fail sheet, you’re printing a novel.

Most of these aren’t hidden faults.

They’re:

• Ignored problems
• Temporary fixes that became permanent
• Or just hoping it’ll scrape through

And every tester has that moment where they think: “How has this made it here?”

Got one?

We’re putting this together every month.

If you’ve had something worse come through your bay, send it in, there’s always something out there that tops it.

enquiries@motester.co.uk