Tyres aged over ten-years fitted to front-steered axles of goods vehicles with a weight exceeding 3,500kg, buses, coaches and minibuses are now illegal after new legislation came into force this week.
MOT test stations have been warned that the new rule also applies to vehicles with more than eight passenger seats that are not used commercially and are tested in MOT classes 4 or 5.
The DVSA’s Chris Price said: “This means failures for tyres over 10 years old on the front axle of any vehicles with nine or more passenger seats, and any single wheels of a minibus – 9-16 passenger seats.
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“These vehicles will also fail if they do not display a legible date code on in scope tyres.
“So, when testing you will need to check that each tyre displays a date of manufacture or re-treading date on the appropriate vehicle.”
The Department for Transport announced the ban in July 2020 following a consultation and extensive investigations which indicate ageing tyres suffer corrosion which could cause them to fail.
The DVSA has updated the MOT inspection manual, setting out the detail of what testers will need to look for.
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