Steering MOT failures
Steering faults account for 1.8% of MOT failures. What the tester checks, why cars fail, and which models fail this most.
What are steering MOT failures?
Steering faults are typically worn track-rod ends or ball joints, play in the rack, or a split gaiter letting grease out and dirt in. Excessive free play at the wheel fails.
How common are steering MOT failures?
Steering faults account for 1.8% of all recorded MOT failures, making them the tenth most common reason cars fail. That share is drawn from the categorised defect records of 16,764 car models in the DVSA data.
| Failure area | Share of all failures |
|---|---|
| Steering | 1.8% |
Which cars fail most on steering?
These models lose the largest share of their own MOT failures to steering items. The percentage is the portion of each model's failures that fall in this area, among models with a large test sample.
| Model | Share of its failures | Overall failure rate | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tata Safari | 41.8% | 39.2% | 7,291 |
| Tata Loadbeta | 31.8% | 37.8% | 14,096 |
| Lexmoto Gladiator | 31.2% | 32.3% | 5,873 |
| Vauxhall Arena | 29.3% | 36.8% | 16,144 |
| Peugeot 505 | 28.2% | 36.2% | 7,054 |
| Proton Wira | 27.7% | 30.1% | 60,321 |
| Perodua Nippa | 27.1% | 32.2% | 24,929 |
| Proton Impian | 25.7% | 30.2% | 30,235 |
| Rover Sd1 | 25.2% | 26.9% | 8,427 |
| Proton Compact | 25.1% | 35.2% | 19,342 |
| Proton Persona | 22.3% | 34.2% | 161,678 |
| Honda Nsr125 | 21.5% | 30.5% | 18,722 |
| Mitsubishi Delica | 21.3% | 34.2% | 68,813 |
| Metrocab Manual | 20.9% | 36.5% | 6,790 |
| Proton Satria | 20.5% | 32.0% | 39,591 |
Other MOT failure areas
How the other DVSA failure areas break down, each with the models that fail it most.
Sources: DVSA MOT History API: MOT test results and defect data ยท DVSA MOT testing data for Great Britain