Pass rate
80.9%
Around average — 8.7 pts ahead of the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 808 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £27–£77
2004 Lexus SC430 MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 87,943 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
25.2% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £40–£65 for Shock absorber leaking. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2009 89.3% pass
- Avoid 2004 80.9% pass · this year
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 8.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 77.6%
- Typical mileage
- 88k mi
The 2004 Lexus SC430 MOT pass rate is 80.9% of its MOT tests — 8.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.2% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Beats its own age and mileage
Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 72.2% and this one manages 80.9% — 8.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 Lexus SC430? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Lexus SC430 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 8.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 77.6%. The median 2004 Lexus SC430 in this dataset had covered 87,943 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 82.5% of the time, April–September 79.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction", noted on 4.08% of tests.
- 808 recorded tests behind this page.
- 80.9% overall pass rate, 77.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Lexus SC430, the average is 83.4% — best year 2009 (89.3%), worst 2004 (80.9%).
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
- 808
- Typical mileage (median)
- 87,943 mi
- Make and model
- Lexus SC430
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Indicator Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the SC430 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 68% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Lexus SC430 is most common
Across all SC430 model years on record (2001–2009): 2,647 Lexus SC430 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 6,137 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 73 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 73 | 87.3% |
| 2 | Guildford (GU) | 65 | 84.3% |
| 3 | Ashford (TN) | 64 | 75.6% |
| 4 | London (NW) | 49 | 84.3% |
| 5 | Sheffield (S) | 49 | 84.5% |
| 6 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 48 | 84.8% |
| 7 | Coventry (CV) | 47 | 82.3% |
| 8 | Chester (CH) | 47 | 82.1% |
| 9 | Glasgow (G) | 43 | 80.9% |
| 10 | Liverpool (L) | 43 | 87.3% |
| 11 | Gloucester (GL) | 43 | 82.0% |
| 12 | Reading (RG) | 42 | 82.0% |
| 13 | London (SE) | 42 | 98.7% |
| 14 | Peterborough (PE) | 40 | 83.3% |
| 15 | Ipswich (IP) | 39 | 85.6% |
| 16 | Basildon (SS) | 38 | 89.7% |
| 17 | Derby (DE) | 38 | 85.1% |
| 18 | Manchester (M) | 37 | 85.7% |
| 19 | Southampton (SO) | 37 | 86.6% |
| 20 | Poole (BH) | 36 | 76.2% |
The twenty areas with the most Lexus SC430 cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the SC430
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 231 | 81.8% |
| East of England | 108 | 87.0% |
| North West | 91 | 76.9% |
| West Midlands | 68 | 80.9% |
| South West | 65 | 76.9% |
| East Midlands | 65 | 81.5% |
| Scotland | 61 | 70.5% |
| London | 43 | 83.7% |
| Yorkshire | 36 | 88.9% |
| North East | 21 | 66.7% |
| Wales | 19 | 94.7% |
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 2004 SC430
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 2004 SC430
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 lights 4.1% of tests
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
-
Check the suspension joints 2.7% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
-
Check the shock absorbers 2.0% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
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 2004 SC430 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £27–£77 — and 36% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £27–£77
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 36%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 808 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 SC430, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2001 to 2009. Across them the pass rate runs from 80.9% to 89.3% — a spread of 8.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 82.2% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2002 83.2% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2003 82.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 80.9%malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2005 83.5% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2006 85.8% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2007 86.2% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2008 83.5% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2009 89.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
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 2004 Lexus SC430 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 2004 cars with a similar record
- Porsche Cayenne 81.1%
- Porsche Boxster 81.5%
- Subaru Impreza 82.2%
- Toyota Alphard 79.2%
- BMW 645 78.8%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 83.1%
Closest pass rates among 2004 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 2004 Lexus SC430 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 1,220 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 310 | 25.20% | 20.98% | +4.22 |
| Brakes | 238 | 19.30% | 20.89% | −1.59 |
| Tyres | 187 | 15.20% | 19.76% | −4.56 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 129 | 10.50% | 12.21% | −1.71 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 115 | 9.30% | 5.52% | +3.78 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 100 | 8.10% | 5.57% | +2.53 |
| Visibility | 53 | 4.30% | 4.97% | −0.67 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 35 | 2.80% | 1.76% | +1.04 |
| Non-component advisories | 32 | 2.60% | 4.18% | −1.58 |
| Steering | 21 | 1.70% | 2.57% | −0.87 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 4.1% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.7% | £18–45 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 2.0% | £60–150 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £30–75 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.6% | £60–140 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.6% | £45–120 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.6% | £5–25 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.6% | £5–25 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.5% | £60–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 8.7% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.8% | £18–45 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 5.6% | £80–180 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 5.6% | £180–450 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.2% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 31 | 93.5% | 19,752 mi |
| 30-60k | 123 | 83.7% | 48,608 mi |
| 60-90k | 267 | 83.5% | 76,775 mi |
| 90-120k | 217 | 76.5% | 104,205 mi |
| 120k+ | 169 | 78.1% | 145,511 mi |
Source: 808 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.
2004 SC430 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Lexus SC430?
80.9% of the 808 2004 Lexus SC430 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 77.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Lexus SC430?
The three most recorded items are malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (4.08%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (2.72%), service brake performance excessively binding (1.98%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Lexus SC430 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.5% of the time, falling to 78.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Lexus SC430 in this dataset had covered 87,943 mi.
Does the season affect the 2004 Lexus SC430 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 82.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 79.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.