Can I appeal my MoT failure if I disagree with the tester?

My car has failed its MoT with a major defect because a tyre sensor was lit on the dashboard. The MoT tester flagged the tyre pressure monitoring system as either “defective or inoperative”.

I went to a garage after the MoT and checked the pressures of all of the tyres. One tyre was 31PSI and not the 32PSI recommended so the sensor was indicating the need to top it up. Is this really valid grounds to fail the MoT? What can I do to appeal this?

Asked on 1 October 2021 by Brian Parker

Answered by Dan Powell
The MoT rules are very clear on this: the tester must only reject the vehicle if it’s clear that the lamp indicates a system malfunction and not simply indicating that one or more of the tyre pressures is low.

If the warning light was cleared by topping up the tyre pressure then I would argue the car should not have failed the MoT. You can appeal the MoT result with the DVSA and ask for the car to be retested.
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