I have had to admit that the reverse in my Viento V8 (lt77) is on its way out. It makes a grinding noise and is slightly judderery when reversing. Having spoken to a local engineer he says a grinding faulty reverse is not a MOT failure. Having no reverse is however. Being as I have just paid for my IVA, no date yet, I was thinking of IVAing it and then sorting the reverse out over winter. Does anyone know of any reason why it would not go through the IVA with a noisey reverse?

[Edited on 2/7/15 by Irony]

I suspect that as long as the car reverses at the time of the test there is no reason for a failure.

Providing it does make it reverse.
Only thing it could come down to is the testers interpretation of the 'general construction':

2. When driven, the safe control of the vehicle must not be impaired or likely to be impaired, due to a design/construction feature or characteristic.
3. The vehicle structure and all components including their attachment must be suitable and of adequate strength. (see note 2)

My plan would be to sort out the gearbox as it will need to be done - that money will need to be spent sooner or later, and if the tester decides to fail the car it will add to the overall expense - as I understand it retest is not cheap.
But your car, your money, your decision.

I took my car for an IVA a couple of weeks back, they didn't even test reversing it. However, it failed because the steering makes no attempt to centre itself.