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Nissan Qashqai
MOT 2023
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Nissan

Qashqai

683,919 MOT tests analysed. lands in the middle of the pack — here's where Qashqais pass, fail, and end up on the retest sheet.

That's in line with the UK fleet average across our 1,988 tracked models.

Pass

75.5%

Pass-after-fix

3.9%

Fail

20.0%

Avg miles

71,251

Pass + Pass-after-fix + Fail = 100%

The picture

Qashqai Passes 75.5% — Suspension Is the Weak Link

With 683,919 MOT records to draw from, the Qashqai's 75.5% first-time pass rate sits around the family SUV average. Suspension joint dust covers, ball joints, and worn bushes dominate the failure list — all classic high-mileage wear items on a car averaging 71,251 miles at test. Early J11 1.2 DIG-T units drew complaints of oil loss between services, with 1.5 litres disappearing over 12 months unnoticed by owners who relied on service intervals alone.

Electrical gremlins — phantom warning sensors and door-lock failures after key removal — crop up regularly on 2014-2017 cars. Pre-purchase inspection should include a full suspension check and a close look at oil level history.

Top ten reasons for rejection.

  1. 01

    A suspension joint dust cover severely deteriorated

    29,259 occurrences · 4.3% of tests

  2. 02

    A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play

    28,627 occurrences · 4.2% of tests

  3. 03

    A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn

    27,012 occurrences · 3.9% of tests

  4. 04

    a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm

    24,631 occurrences · 3.6% of tests

  5. 05

    A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources

    23,245 occurrences · 3.4% of tests

  6. 06

    Steering rack gaiter or ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated

    22,983 occurrences · 3.4% of tests

  7. 07

    A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot severely deteriorated

    19,741 occurrences · 2.9% of tests

  8. 08

    Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements

    19,211 occurrences · 2.8% of tests

  9. 09

    A lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning

    18,684 occurrences · 2.7% of tests

  10. 10

    A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc

    18,615 occurrences · 2.7% of tests

Counts cover Major and Dangerous defects logged at test. Advisory items excluded so this shows why a car was rejected, not just what the tester flagged in passing.

Worst-case fix budget · top 5 failures

£328–£915

If every one of this Qashqai's most-logged Major fails hit at the same MOT, that's the real-world UK garage range. Reality is usually one or two items, not all of them. Open the estimator →

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Tools that pre-empt a retest.

Picked against this car's top failure patterns. Affiliate links to Amazon UK — we earn a small cut at no cost to you. Disclosed up-front, doesn't shape the data.

Item 01 · Amazon UK

Brake pad measurement gauge

Testers fail pads under 1.5mm. A wear gauge tells you if you've got two months left or two weeks.

Search Amazon UK

Item 02 · Amazon UK

H7 / W21W bulb pack

A spare-bulb kit lives in the boot. Test morning is not the time to find your stop-lamp's gone.

Search Amazon UK

Owner reports · Honest John

What owners actually report.

Verbatim faults logged by owners on honestjohn.co.uk over recent years. We didn't summarise — these are the words people typed in.

Recent owner-reported faults

  1. 15 Jan 2018

    3rd service of 2014/64 Qashqai J11 1.2 DIG-T showed oil loss of 1.5 litres over 12 months (owner evidently did not check oil between services). Car now at 37,500 miles, still under warranty until February 2018. Owner told to bring it back for checks after 3,000 miles.

  2. 21 Dec 2017

    Electrical glitches reported with 2014 Nissan Qashqai bought used from a Nissan dealer in August 2017. Front warning sensor sometimes goes of when driving, has been rectified once, but has now happened again. Sometimes when stopped and on taking the key out of the ignition the doors will not open and the alarm goes off, on putting the key back in and turning on the electrics the alarm stops and owner can open the door.

  3. 19 Dec 2017

    Battery failure reported on 2016 Nissan Qashqai.

  4. 8 Dec 2017

    Report of 2014 Nissan Qashqai J11 1.2 DIG-T Acenta Premium suffering excessive oil consumption and loss of power. Owner eventually told engine needs replacing due to piston ring slotting failure spotted from a compression test. Car went out of warranty Feb 2017 and Nissan has refused any liability. Owner advised to sue on the basis of a "fundamental fault" using the evidence of other reported failures.

  5. 4 Dec 2017

    Report of 2015 Nissan Qashqai J11 1.2 DIG-T Tekna needing a new engine.

  6. 29 Nov 2017

    Report of 2015/65 Nissan Qashqai J11 1.2 DIG-T Tekna on 19-inch 45 profile tyres needing new front tyres at 14,000 miles. (The 215/60 R17 tyres on 17-inch wheels last around 30,000 miles.) Also having used 3 litres of oil in 14,000 miles.

  7. 19 Nov 2017

    Report of 2017 Nissan Qashqai burning out its clutch and damaging its flywheel after 3,000 miles. Owner blames the electromechanical parking brake 'auto-release' not releasing quickly enough.

  8. 14 Nov 2017

    Problems with 2016/65 reg Nissan Qashqai 1.6 dCi 130 have included; corrosion under the lacquer of the diamond cut alloy wheels which saw two alloy wheels being replaced at just over 1 year old. The battery failed in summer 2017. In October it had the Mass Airflow Sensor replaced as it had started dropping power, and the air conditioning required regassing (R1234YF) at a cost of £150 as there was no gas left in the system, yet supposedly no leaks in the system either. Now the lacquer has stated to bubble on one of the two wheels not replaced last spring. In addition the air filter housing is held together with self tapping screws! These screws were fitted by the dealer in an apparently crude attempt to stop the air filter housing from vibrating and buzzing, something. The original plastic clips have now been fretted away to dust, and so the housing now needs replacing too.

  9. 13 Nov 2017

    Report of engine of 2016 Nissan Qashqai J11 1.2 DIG-T cutting out completely at 60mph on two occasions. Dealer "re-booted" the ECU after the first time. Is now checking it a 2nd time. See: 11-3-2017 and 4-6-2017.

  10. 6 Sep 2017

    Report of "smudgy blue line" appearing on the satnav screen of a 2015 Qashqai 1.5 dci Ntec.

  11. 5 Sep 2017

    Report of 2014 Nissan Qashqai J11 1.2 DIG-T in for service found to have excessively noisy engine and high oil consumption. Dealer asked for it back next week for checks and may fit new engine.

  12. 1 Sep 2017

    Report of burning smell and orange (engine shaped) warning light coming on in 2016 Nissan Qashqai J11 1.6 DIG-T at 3,000 miles. RAC tjought it was a problem with an exhaust lambda sensor. Nissan dealer thinks it might be the clutch, which would not be covered under warranty. Wants owner to guarantee to pay £800 to replace the clutch. Owner thinks the problem might be the electromechanical parking brake sticking on and causing excess clutch wear.

Source: honestjohn.co.uk · 30 reports indexed, top 12 shown

Buying or keeping a Qashqai?

Use the failure ranking as a pre-test checklist or a haggling lever. Treat the headline pass rate as a fleet-wide trend, not a guarantee on any individual car.

If you own a Qashqai and your last MOT looked nothing like the ranked failures above, that's normal — individual cars vary widely. The ranking shows the patterns testers flag most often across the country.