MOT advisory: suspension arm pin or bush worn
Suspension arms hold the wheels in place and pivot on rubber bushes or metal pins. As the rubber ages it cracks and softens, and the arm can move more than it should. The tester saw wear, but not enough movement to fail it.
What the tester wrote
| Result | Wording on the certificate | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Advisory | Pins and bushes: pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement | Advisory (pass) |
| Fail | Pins and bushes: pin or bush excessively worn | Major |
What the MOT checks
With the car on a lift, the tester levers the arms and watches the joints. Too much movement in a pin or bush is a Major fail. Rubber bushes only fail when the bonding or the rubber itself has seriously deteriorated, so fine cracking on its own gets an advisory, not a fail.
The note tends to turn up on older, higher-mileage cars, which fits what the data shows.
"You should only reject rubber or synthetic bushes when you can see serious deterioration of the bonding or flexible material."
MOT inspection manual, section 5.3.4 Suspension joints, pins and bushes. Read it on GOV.UK
How common it is
In 2025 this advisory was recorded on 5.5 in every 100 class 4 MOT tests (1,810,601 of 33,210,774 initial tests). The matching fail was recorded on 1.2 in every 100 (405,056 tests).
The typical car with the advisory was 12 years old with 92,864 miles recorded (medians).
| Age at test (years) | Advisory per 100 tests | Fail per 100 tests |
|---|---|---|
| 0-2 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| 3 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| 4-5 | 1.6 | 0.3 |
| 6-7 | 3.0 | 0.6 |
| 8-10 | 5.6 | 1.2 |
| 11-14 | 8.2 | 1.9 |
| 15-19 | 9.4 | 2.2 |
| 20+ | 6.6 | 1.6 |
'Not shown' means fewer than 1,000 tests in that cell, or a cell hidden so a small one can't be worked out. Age is years since first registration. First MOTs often happen just before a car's third birthday, so many show as age 2.
Does it turn into a fail at the next MOT?
We followed the same cars to their next MOT, 240 to 500 days later (1,390,298 pairs where this advisory was recorded). 6.6% failed on the same item at that next test, and another 32.6% had the same advisory again.
Among cars where this item wasn't noted at all, 1.0% failed on it next time. So a car with this advisory was about 7 times as likely to fail on this item as one without it.
These are averages. We can't see what owners did between tests. Some will have fixed the problem, and a fix would stop a fail.
What it usually means for a buyer
Worn bushes affect how the car feels before they affect the MOT. On a test drive, listen for knocks over speed bumps, feel for vague or wandering steering, and see if the car pulls under braking.
Look at the front tyres too. Worn bushes can let the alignment drift and wear the tyre edges. If both notes are on the same certificate, they're probably linked.
Typical fix
The bush is pressed out and replaced, or the whole arm is replaced with new bushes fitted, which is often simpler. An alignment check afterwards is sensible. Prices vary a lot by car and garage, so get a quote for the specific car.
Questions to ask the seller
You can read any car's MOT history, including advisories, free on GOV.UK. Our MOT advisory decoder explains the other notes in plain English.
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Sources and limitations
- Data: DVSA MOT anonymised test results and test items, class 4 initial tests, 2024 and 2025 (open data on GOV.UK). Same DVSA data as our MOT dataset.
- 'Fail' includes items fixed at the test centre within an hour (pass after rectification).
- An advisory is a tester's judgement on the day. Testers differ, and some problems are not visible at an MOT.
- The MOT is not a service and does not check the engine, clutch or gearbox in depth.
- Counts under 1,000 are not shown. No make or model figures are published here.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), MOT Anonymised Data. Analysis by CarCheckHQ. Not endorsed by DVSA.
Written by the CarCheckHQ team.