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MOT retest: the free and partial retest rules, and how a retest shows in MOT history

Updated 1 Nov 2026

After an MOT fail, the retest is free if the car stays at the test centre for repair and is retested within 10 working days. If you take it away and bring it back to the same centre, the partial retest is free before the end of the next working day when the car failed only on listed items, such as lamps, tyres and wipers. Otherwise, within 10 working days, it can cost up to half the maximum MOT fee, which is £54.85 for a car (checked 1 Nov 2026). In all other cases, it is a full test at the full fee.

The rules at a glance

Situation Retest Fee (checked 1 Nov 2026)
The car stays at the test centre and is retested within 10 working days Partial Free
You take it away and return to the same centre before the end of the next working day, with only listed items failed Partial Free
You take it away and return to the same centre within 10 working days Partial Up to half the maximum MOT fee
Any other case, including a different centre or more than 10 working days later Full test Full MOT fee again

The £54.85 car maximum (checked 1 Nov 2026) has no VAT, and centres may charge less. These retest rules are for Great Britain; Northern Ireland has different rules.

Working days leave out Saturdays, Sundays, Good Friday, Christmas Day and bank holidays. The 10 working days are counted from the day after the test. Only one partial retest is allowed per full test.

A partial retest covers every failed item, anything the repairs may have affected (with a new brake test if needed), and any minor defects and advisories from the first test. So a retest can fail too: a major or dangerous defect found at it means a new fail.

Which items get a free retest the next working day?

This applies only if the car failed on one or more of these items:

Access panels, battery, bonnet, bootlid, brake pedal anti-slip, doors (including hinges, catches and pillars), dropsides, electrical wiring, fuel filler cap, headlamp cleaning or levelling devices (that do not need a headlamp aim check), horn, lamps (excluding headlamp aim), loading door, main beam ‘tell-tale’, mirrors, rear reflectors, registration plates, seatbelts (but not anchorages), seatbelt load limiter and seatbelt pre-tensioner, seats, sharp edges or projections, steering wheel, tailboard, tailgate, trailer electrical sockets, towbars (excluding body around anchorage points), tyre pressure monitoring system, vehicle identification number (VIN), windscreen glass, wipers and washers, wheels and tyres.

So brakes (apart from the pedal’s anti-slip cover), suspension, emissions and headlamp aim are not on it. If you take the car away after one of those fails and bring it back to the same centre within 10 working days, the partial retest can be charged.

Can you drive a car that failed its MOT?

You can drive a failed car away if its current MOT is still valid and no dangerous problems were listed, and it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness. GOV.UK says you can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle that failed because of a dangerous problem.

If the MOT has run out, you cannot drive or park the car on the road, except to drive it to or from somewhere to be repaired, or to a pre-arranged MOT test. GOV.UK says the fine for driving without a valid MOT can be up to £1,000.

How quickly are cars retested?

We counted failed normal MOT tests on cars and other class 4 vehicles in DVSA’s anonymised 2025 data that were followed by another test in 2025. Faults fixed within the hour (PRS) are not in this count. The next test came:

Together that is about 95%, so most of these cars were tested again within 10 working days. Of the tests DVSA’s data records as retests, 99% came within 9 working days of the fail. This count skips weekends but not bank holidays.

How a fail and its retest show in MOT history

The GOV.UK MOT history service shows whether each test passed or failed, the mileage at each test, and for tests in England, Scotland and Wales, the failed parts and minor problems. With the 11-digit number from the log book (V5C), it also shows where each test was done.

PRS means “Pass after Rectification at Station”: defects are repaired within one hour after the test, before the result is recorded. In the DVSA records we read for a car, a PRS shows as a fail with the failure items marked PRS, then, within a second, a pass with the same mileage. Our first-time pass rates count a PRS as a fail, as the DVSA’s own figures do (how we count).

Our free check shows the MOT history from DVSA records, newest first. The records we read don’t say which test was a retest, so we group by date: a fail and any tests within 10 working days of it, up to the first pass, are one entry, labelled:

The days in “4 days later” are calendar days, so “13 days later” can still be inside 10 working days. Our window leaves out weekends but not bank holidays, so around a bank holiday it can end earlier than the official one.

What should a buyer read into it?

As our count shows, a fail followed by a quick retest is common, so on its own it is not a warning sign.

  1. Start with our free check: the car’s MOT history from DVSA records, with a fail and its retest shown together, and whether the MOT is valid.
  2. Open each failed test and read the items. A number plate bulb and a brake fault read very differently. Consider whether the same items failed or were advised again in later years.
  3. “Fail, fixed during the test and passed” means the failed items were repaired at the test centre within an hour, so the car left that visit with a pass.
  4. “Fail, passed on retest 4 days later” means the car passed a test within 10 working days of the fail. A partial retest examines every item that failed, so those items passed. The MOT history doesn’t show who did the repair or what it cost, so ask the seller, and ask for the invoice.
  5. “Fail, not passed within 10 working days”, followed later by a pass, means the next test came after our window, so it was most likely a full test. Ask the seller about the gap.
  6. “Fail, not passed since” means the latest test was a fail. Check when the MOT runs out and whether a dangerous problem was listed. Consider asking the seller to get the car through its MOT before you pay.
  7. Do the other checks before buying: an MOT history doesn’t show outstanding finance, write-offs or theft.

Sources

See a car's MOT history

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