Pass rate
80.0%
Around average — 6.0 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 80 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £33–£79
2017 BMW 518 MOT pass rate
- 2017
- typical 95,628 mi
Only 80 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Most common fault
Brakes
38.3% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£40 for Brake pads under 1.5 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2016 89.0% pass
- Avoid 2017 80.0% pass · this year
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 75.4%
- Typical mileage
- 96k mi
The 2017 BMW 518 MOT pass rate is 80.0% of its MOT tests — 6.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 38.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 518 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.8× the national share
Brakes make up 38.3% of everything recorded on the 2017 BMW 518, against 20.9% nationally — 17.4 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 86.0%; this one manages 80.0% — 6.0 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 30% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a BMW 518? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2017 BMW 518 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 6.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 75.4%. The median 2017 BMW 518 in this dataset had covered 95,628 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 5.00% of tests.
- 80 recorded tests behind this page.
- 80.0% overall pass rate, 75.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 518, the average is 86.0% — best year 2016 (89.0%), worst 2017 (80.0%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 80
- Typical mileage (median)
- 95,628 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 518
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the 518 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 518
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 21 | 81.0% |
| North West | 18 | 77.8% |
| West Midlands | 17 | 70.6% |
| South East | 16 | 81.3% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2017 518
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2017 518
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the windscreen 5.0% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
-
Check the brakes 3.8% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
-
Check the wipers and washers 3.8% of tests
“washers provides insufficient washer liquid”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2017 518 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £33–£79 — and 30% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £33–£79
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 30%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 80 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the 518, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2013 to 2017. Across them the pass rate runs from 80.0% to 89.0% — a spread of 9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2013 82.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 85.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 87.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 89.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 80.0%windscreen damaged but not…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2017 BMW 518 with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2017 cars with a similar record
Closest pass rates among 2017 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2017 BMW 518 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 81 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 31 | 38.30% | 20.89% | +17.41 |
| Tyres | 25 | 30.90% | 19.76% | +11.14 |
| Visibility | 9 | 11.10% | 4.97% | +6.13 |
| Suspension | 7 | 8.60% | 20.98% | −12.38 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3 | 3.70% | 5.52% | −1.82 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2 | 2.50% | 12.21% | −9.71 |
| Non-component advisories | 2 | 2.50% | 4.18% | −1.68 |
| Steering | 1 | 1.20% | 2.57% | −1.37 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1 | 1.20% | 0.82% | +0.38 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.0% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 3.8% | £18–45 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 3.8% | £5–15 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Rectified | 2.5% | £3–12 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 2.5% | £30–75 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 2.5% | £8–22 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 20.0% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 15.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.3% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.0% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 3.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 1.3% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 50.0% | 29,140 mi |
| 30-60k | 11 | 100.0% | 49,140 mi |
| 60-90k | 21 | 81.0% | 72,931 mi |
| 90-120k | 26 | 76.9% | 104,129 mi |
| 120k+ | 20 | 75.0% | 142,036 mi |
Source: 80 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2017 518 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 BMW 518?
80.0% of the 80 2017 BMW 518 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 75.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 BMW 518?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (5.00%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (3.75%), washers provides insufficient washer liquid (3.75%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 BMW 518 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 50.0% of the time, falling to 75.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 BMW 518 in this dataset had covered 95,628 mi.