An MOT advisory is a warning, not a fail. Read alone, it usually means "not a problem yet". Read across multiple tests, advisories are one of the most honest signals of how a car has actually been maintained over its life.
Advisories are future-fail warnings. A single advisory rarely matters. The same advisory appearing year after year almost always means the issue was never properly fixed, only patched enough to pass the next test.
On 20 May 2018, DVSA replaced the simple pass/fail MOT result with a graded defect system. Every issue found during a test is now categorised by severity, and the category decides whether the car passes, fails or fails outright.
The vehicle meets the minimum legal standard. No defects were recorded at any level.
Pass issued. The tester has flagged items that are not faults yet but will need attention in the future. Advisories carry no immediate consequence and the car is fully road-legal.
Pass issued. A defect was recorded but it does not significantly affect safety or the environment. Should be repaired as soon as practical.
The defect could affect vehicle safety, put other road users at risk or have a negative environmental impact. The car has failed the MOT and the defect must be repaired before it can pass.
The most serious category. The defect represents a direct and immediate risk to safety or the environment. The vehicle must not be driven on the road until the defect has been repaired.
Tyre tread approaching the 1.6mm legal minimum is the single most common advisory. Cracks in the sidewall, uneven wear patterns and tread depth approaching the limit all routinely earn an advisory note.
Brake pad and disc wear are next most common. Brake imbalance, lightly leaking calipers, perished hoses and corroded brake lines all appear regularly. A recurring brake advisory is one of the more serious patterns to watch for.
Worn bushes, perished anti-roll bar links, corroded springs and tired dampers. Suspension advisories often precede a Major fail two or three years later if ignored.
Surface corrosion on the underbody, the sills, the subframe, brake lines and the exhaust mounts. Corrosion advisories tend to compound, so a car with multiple corrosion notes year on year is usually heading toward a structural fail.
Faded headlight lenses, slightly incorrect aim, water ingress in light units. Generally cheap to address.
Excessive smoke (often a sign of failing engine internals on older cars), corroded exhaust mounts, perished catalytic converter heat shields. Emissions advisories on diesels deserve particular scrutiny.
Any single MOT advisory is, by definition, not yet a problem. Patterns across multiple MOTs are where the signal is:
Rough ranges for a mid-size petrol or diesel car, using independent garage rates. Premium and prestige cars often run double these figures.
Most of the time, yes. The advisory exists because the tester has assessed that the item is on a trajectory toward failure. Addressing the issue now is almost always cheaper than letting it fail later, especially for tyres, brakes and corrosion.
Exceptions are advisories on items already scheduled for replacement (a tyre advisory two months before the scheduled tyre change, for instance) or advisories on edge-of-spec items that have been stable for several years on a low-mileage car. Use judgement, but lean toward fixing.
When you are looking at a car to buy, read the entire advisory history, not just the most recent MOT. The pattern tells you more than any seller's description. Specifically:
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Check MOT history →No. An advisory is a pass with a future-fail warning. The car is fully road-legal until either the item fails an MOT or the underlying defect (e.g. a bald tyre) crosses the legal threshold.
Yes, advisories on their own do not affect insurance. However, if an advisory describes an actual roadworthy defect (e.g. a tyre below 1.6mm tread), the insurer may refuse a claim arising from that defect.
Yes. Every advisory recorded by the tester appears on the DVSA MOT history database and is visible to anyone who runs a free MOT history check. Sellers cannot remove them.
An advisory is a warning of a future issue; a minor defect is a present issue that is not severe enough to fail the test. Both result in a pass, but a minor carries more weight than an advisory.
Treat MOT advisories as honest signals. A clean record with the occasional advisory is normal. Recurring same-item advisories or compounding multiple advisories tell you a car has been kept on the road through patches rather than repairs. Always read the pattern, not just the headline result.
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