MOT advisories explained: what they mean and what to fix
By James Snow
Owner and mechanic, SV Autos
Updated 25 July 2026
You get your MOT certificate back, it says pass, and then there's a list of advisories underneath that nobody explains to you. An advisory means the car passed but the tester has spotted something starting to wear that will probably need sorting before long. Here's what those notes actually mean, whether you're safe to drive, and how to work out what needs doing now and what can wait.
Pass, advisory, fail: the three outcomes
Every fault the tester finds gets put in a category, and the category is what decides whether your car passes. There are three levels, and only the top two stop you passing.
A dangerous or major fault is a fail, and the car can't legally go back on the road until it's fixed and re-tested. A minor fault is really just a note: the car passes, but the tester is flagging it so you know. An advisory sits alongside those minor notes as a heads-up about something that will likely turn into a fail down the line.
- Dangerous: a direct risk to safety, fail, don't drive it away
- Major: could affect safety or the environment, fail, needs fixing and re-testing
- Minor: passes, but noted so you can keep an eye on it
- Advisory: passes, a warning that something is wearing and will need attention
What an advisory is actually telling you
An advisory is the tester saying: this is fine today, but it won't be for much longer. It's the middle ground between perfect and failed. The part still meets the standard, so it can't fail you for it, but it's close enough to the line that they want it on record.
Most advisories are wear-and-tear items that were always going to need doing eventually. The point of writing them down is to save you a surprise fail next year, and to give you time to plan the work rather than being caught out.
- Tyres getting close to the legal tread limit
- Brake pads or discs wearing thin but not yet worn out
- Slight corrosion on the underside or brake pipes
- A small amount of play in a suspension or steering joint
- A minor oil leak that isn't dripping badly yet
Can you keep driving with an advisory?
Usually yes. The car passed, so it's road legal and taxable, and an advisory on its own doesn't stop you driving. But passed is not the same as ignore it, and some advisories move a lot faster than others.
A tyre flagged as close to the limit could be down to the legal minimum within a few weeks if you do a lot of miles, and a worn tyre is both a safety risk and a fine of its own. Corrosion and worn brakes only ever get worse. So keep driving, but treat the advisory as a job on the list, not something to forget until next year's test.
How to decide what to fix now and what can wait
Not every advisory needs doing this week, but some do. The quick way to sort them is to think about safety first, then how fast the part is wearing, then cost and convenience.
Anything to do with brakes, tyres or steering, get looked at sooner rather than later, because those are the parts keeping you stopping and pointing the right way. Slow-moving things like light surface corrosion can often be watched for a while. If you're not sure how serious a note is, it's worth having someone who knows what they're looking at take a proper look and tell you straight.
- Sort soon: anything on brakes, tyres, steering or suspension
- Plan in: a minor leak or a part that's wearing but has life left
- Monitor: light surface corrosion or very early wear
Why last year's advisory matters this year
Advisories stay on your car's MOT history, so you can look them up any time on the GOV.UK MOT history service with just the registration. That history is genuinely useful, because an advisory from last year is often exactly what fails the car this year.
If you know a tyre or a set of brake pads was flagged last time, you can get ahead of it and sort it before the next test comes round. That's the whole idea behind a pre-MOT check: go through the advisories and the usual failure points in advance, fix what needs fixing, and walk into the test expecting a clean pass.