Roadworthy inspection checklist: pass first time
When you need a roadworthy inspection depends on your state, but what gets checked barely changes. Most failures are small, visible things you can catch in the driveway the week before.
Every light and indicator
Walk around with a helper (or a reflection in a window): headlights on both beams, brake lights, indicators, fog lights, number-plate bulbs. Bulbs are among the most common failures and the cheapest fix on this page.
Tyres: tread, pressure, damage
At least 1.5mm of tread in all the principal grooves, right around the tyre, with no cuts, bulges or cords showing. The tyres and rims on each axle have to be the same size, and all your tyres need to be the same construction. Set pressures to the placard on the door pillar.
Wipers, washers, screen
Wipers that clear without smearing, washer jets that actually spray, and no chips or cracks in the driver’s sweep area big enough to obstruct view. Top the washer fluid: an empty bottle is a fail.
Horn, seatbelts, mirrors
A working horn, seatbelts that latch and retract on every seat, and the required mirrors present, secure and intact. Thirty seconds to check, all inspected items.
Warning lights on the dash
Engine management, airbag, ABS or brake-fluid lights that stay lit are failures in their own right. If one is on, have it diagnosed before the inspection, not explained to the inspector.
Listen and feel on one short drive
Knocks over bumps, grinding when braking, a pull to one side: the tyre and brake defects that dominate the dangerous end of the list rarely arrive silently. A week of margin turns them from a fail into an appointment.
Why cars actually fail
The same categories lead the lists everywhere: lights and signalling, tyres, brakes, steering and suspension, plus the windscreen in the driver's view and rust or damage to the body. Almost all of it is visible or audible before an inspector ever sees the car.
Rules differ by state. Victoria wants a Roadworthy Certificate when you sell or re-register, New South Wales wants an annual inspection once the car is over five years old, and Queensland wants a Safety Certificate before you hand the car over to a private buyer, not to advertise it. Check your own state before you book.
Common questions
How long does a roadworthy inspection take?
Anywhere from half an hour to a couple of hours, depending on your state and the car. A New South Wales safety check is usually the quickest. A Victorian roadworthy takes longer. If something needs fixing, allow for the workshop having the car longer and for a re-inspection afterwards.
Do I need an inspection every year?
That depends on your state. New South Wales is the only place that asks for a yearly check on an ordinary private car, and only once the car is more than five years old. Everywhere else the inspection is triggered by an event, usually selling, transferring or re-registering. The Northern Territory dropped its routine renewal inspection in February 2026. Your state road authority is the source of truth.
What happens if my car fails?
You get a report listing what failed. In Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland you have 14 days to fix the listed items and bring the car back to the same inspector, and the re-inspection is free or reduced. Miss that window, or go to a different inspector, and you pay for a full inspection again. You can have the repairs done wherever you like. It is only the re-inspection that has to go back.
Should I service the car before or after the inspection?
Booking them together in one visit is usually cheapest and catches service items that would fail the inspection anyway. If choosing one order: inspection first, then let the service fix what it found.
Something on the list needs fixing first?
Book the work with a trusted local mechanic, or describe the fault and vetted mechanics quote you direct.
Book with a local mechanicWhat happens if it fails
A fail is not the end of the day, and knowing how the retest works saves both money and a wasted trip.
Rules vary by state, but the shape is usually the same: fix the listed items and return within a set window, and the re-inspection is either free or reduced. In Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland that window is 14 days and you have to go back to the same inspector. Leave it longer, or take the car elsewhere, and you generally pay for a full inspection again.
You are never obliged to have the failing work done where the inspection happened. Getting a second quote is reasonable and often worthwhile, particularly on the larger items. What matters is that the work is done properly and the car is re-inspected in time.
There is no advisory list, so ask what was close
An Australian roadworthy or safety certificate is pass or fail. There is no list of items that are legal today and heading towards not being.
The information still exists, it just does not get written down. Tyres near the limit, a shock absorber starting to weep, surface rust that is not yet structural. The inspector saw all of it.
So ask before you drive away: what was close. A minute of conversation tells you roughly when you will be buying tyres, which is more useful than finding out at the next inspection with no time to shop around.
There is also no public inspection history for a car in Australia, so a buyer cannot look up what was flagged last time. Anything you want to remember, you have to keep yourself.
Write it down, or photograph the certificate with a note on your phone. The certificate itself is short-lived, 30 days in Victoria and two months or 2,000km for a private seller in Queensland, but what you learned on the day outlasts the paperwork.