MOT Check — Frequently Asked Questions

An MOT (Ministry of Transport) test is an annual inspection required by law for most vehicles over three years old in the UK. It checks that the vehicle meets the minimum safety and environmental standards set by the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency). Passing an MOT does not guarantee that a car is in perfect mechanical condition — only that it met the minimum requirements on the day it was tested.

Most vehicles used on UK public roads that are over three years old require an annual MOT. This includes cars, motorcycles, light vans, and motorhomes. Some vehicles are exempt, including:

• Vehicles manufactured before 1960 (historic vehicles)
• Agricultural vehicles and tractors
• Electric vehicles first registered before 1 March 2015 (until they are 40 years old)

The MOT expiry date is shown on the vehicle's tax disc (or can be checked online using the registration number).

The MOT covers nine main sections of the DVSA Inspection Manual:

• Brakes — condition, operation, and efficiency
• Steering — mechanical condition, play, and electronic systems
• Visibility — glass, wipers, mirrors, horn
• Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment — all lights, wiring, and battery
• Axles, wheels, tyres and suspension — tyre condition, tread depth, shock absorbers
• Chassis and body — structural integrity, exhaust, fuel system
• Other equipment — speedometer, airbags, TPMS, seatbelts
• Nuisance — exhaust emissions for petrol and diesel vehicles

See the full MOT Inspection Manual for a complete breakdown of every item and defect category.

The 2018 MOT reform introduced four defect categories, replacing the old pass/fail/advisory system:

• Dangerous — a direct and immediate risk to road safety or the environment. The vehicle must not be driven until repaired.
• Major — affects road safety or emissions. The vehicle fails the MOT and cannot be used on the road legally until fixed.
• Minor — a defect that does not significantly affect safety. Recorded on the test certificate but does not cause a failure.
• Advisory — an item to monitor. Not a failure, but the tester recommends attention to prevent it developing further.

If your car has a Major failure, it is not legal to drive on a public road until the defect is repaired and the car has passed a retest. If a Dangerous defect is recorded, you must not drive the vehicle at all — even to a repair garage — until it has been made safe.

The one exception is driving directly to a pre-booked MOT retest appointment if your current MOT certificate has not yet expired.

Checking a vehicle's MOT history is one of the most useful things you can do before buying a used car. It tells you:

• How many tests the car has had and its first-time pass rate
• The mileage recorded at each test — useful for spotting potential clocking
• Any advisories, failures, or dangerous defects in its history
• Whether the same faults have been flagged repeatedly
• Whether the car's stated age and usage are consistent with the records

MOT history is free to check on WhenMOT using any UK registration number.

Clocking is the illegal practice of winding back a vehicle's odometer to show a lower mileage than it has actually covered. This makes the car appear less worn and more valuable than it really is.

The easiest way to spot it is to review the mileage recorded at each MOT test. If the mileage decreases between tests, or if the annual increase seems implausibly low for a vehicle supposedly in regular use, this is a red flag. WhenMOT shows the full mileage timeline for every tested vehicle.

The DVSA MOT history database holds records from around 2005 onwards. Older records may be missing or incomplete. WhenMOT displays every record available from DVSA for the registration number searched.

Yes. WhenMOT retrieves MOT history directly from the DVSA Trade API and vehicle data from the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service — both official UK government data sources. The data is not scraped or estimated; it is the same underlying data used on the Government's own Check MOT History service.

There are a few possible reasons:

• The vehicle is under three years old and has not yet needed its first MOT
• It is an exempt vehicle (e.g. a classic car built before 1960)
• It has only recently been registered in the UK and has no UK MOT history yet
• Records prior to 2005 may not be in the DVSA database

If a vehicle that should have MOT history shows none, this warrants further investigation before purchase.

An advisory does not cause your car to fail the MOT. The vehicle will still receive a pass certificate. However, the advisory is a note from the tester that the item is approaching the point where it could become a failure — for example, tyre tread worn close to the legal 1.6mm limit.

It is good practice to address advisories promptly to avoid them becoming Major failures at a future test and to maintain the vehicle's safety in the interim.

According to DVSA data, the most common reasons for MOT failure in the UK include:

• Lighting and signalling — blown bulbs, faulty brake lights or indicators
• Suspension — worn shock absorbers, ball joints, or bushes
• Brakes — worn pads or discs, seized callipers, or imbalanced braking
• Tyres — tread below the 1.6mm legal minimum, or damaged sidewalls
• Driver's view — damaged or obscured windscreen

See the MOT Inspection Manual for the full list of testable items and their defect categories.

Yes, particularly if the same item has been flagged in multiple tests. A single advisory from several years ago that has not reappeared is likely to have been repaired. But if the same item — for example, a brake pipe or suspension component — keeps appearing as an advisory, it suggests the issue has been temporarily patched rather than properly fixed. This pattern is visible in the advisory history on WhenMOT.