Every MOT certificate has room for two kinds of note. A defect is a fault serious enough to fail the car: a dangerous or major item that has to be fixed before the car can be driven legally. An advisory is a fault the tester saw but judged minor on the day, and the car passes with it recorded.
Because advisories stay on the DVSA record, they are the closest thing most used cars have to a service history you can trust. A seller can lose the receipts; they cannot remove "front tyres wearing on inner edge" from three consecutive tests.
What an MOT advisory is
Since the test changed in May 2018, each item is graded as dangerous, major, minor or advisory. Dangerous and major items fail the car. Minor items pass but are printed on the certificate. Advisories are a step below that: the tester is telling the owner to keep an eye on something before the next test.
Advisories are written in the tester's own words within set categories, so the same fault can appear as "slight play in steering rack inner joint" at one garage and "steering rack gaiter perished" at another. Read them for the component named and the direction of travel, not the exact wording.
The advisories you will see most
| Advisory | What it usually means | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Tyre worn close to legal limit | Tread near 1.6 mm. Budget for tyres soon; uneven wear on one edge suggests tracking or suspension. | £60-£180 per tyre |
| Brake pads wearing thin | Routine wear. Ask when they were last changed and whether the discs were done too. | £80-£250 per axle |
| Slight corrosion to brake pipe / subframe | Surface rust. Harmless on its own but it is where next year's failure comes from if ignored. | £0 to treat, £150+ if it progresses |
| Oil leak, not excessive | A weep from a seal or gasket. Find out where from before you buy. | £40 for a sump plug, £600+ for a rear main seal |
| Suspension bush deteriorated | Rubber mounts perished. Vague steering and knocking over bumps follow. | £100-£300 per arm |
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Advisories that point to bigger problems
Three patterns matter more than any single line.
The same advisory for three years running
A fault noted in 2024, 2025 and 2026 has not been fixed. The owner knows about it and has chosen not to spend the money. Price the repair into your offer, and ask yourself what else has had the same treatment.
Corrosion that moves from "slight" to "moderate"
Rust on sills, subframes and brake pipes is graded by the tester's judgement. When the wording hardens from one year to the next, the car is heading for a structural failure that is often uneconomic to repair on an older vehicle.
Advisories that vanish without a repair
If a car had a worn tyre, an oil leak and a corroded pipe one year and a clean sheet the next with no change in mileage, either a lot of work was done or the car went to a more forgiving tester. Ask for the invoices.
How to check a car's advisories for free
Enter the registration in the box above or on our free MOT check. The result lists every test since 2005 with its advisories grouped by part, so a tyre problem that appears across four tests shows as one line with four dates, not four separate entries to piece together. The data comes directly from the DVSA.
What the MOT record cannot tell you is whether the car has outstanding finance, has been written off or is recorded as stolen. For that you need a full history check, which we sell for £9.99 with no subscription.
Common questions
Do advisories fail an MOT?
No. An advisory is recorded on a pass certificate. Only dangerous and major defects fail the car.
Do I have to fix MOT advisories?
Not legally. But many advisories become failures within a year, and some, such as worn tyres or thin brake pads, can become dangerous before the next test is due.
How long do advisories stay on record?
Advisories are kept with the test result on the DVSA record indefinitely. Tests from 2005 onwards are available to look up by registration.
Can a seller remove advisories?
No. The record is held by the DVSA and cannot be edited by the owner or the garage after the test is logged.
Last reviewed 9 November 2026 against the current DVSA MOT inspection manual. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.