Spot welding is widely used for joining metal plates. However, a highly reliable monitoring method is needed to weld a robust structure. For this purpose, we developed a magnetic flux leakage (MFL) system using a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor for nondestructive spot-weld inspection. The magnetic flux is induced between two joined plates, and the magnetic flux leakage with a tangential component parallel to the plate surface is measured. A magnetic image at the spot-welding part is obtained by two-dimensional scanning. The connected diameter of the nugget and the maximum shear load are measured after the magnetic measurement to investigate their interrelationship. The results show that the nondestructive magnetic flux leakage test shows a good correlation with the destructive shear test. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.