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MOT advisory explained

“Oil leak, but not excessive”

Recorded on 2,384 of the 25,257 cars checked on this site. Every time it was an advisory.

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Cars with it
2,384
of 25,257 checked
Share of cars
9.4%
at least once
Recorded as
Advisory
100% of 4,329 visits
Back next time
42%
of 3,305 follow-up visits

What it means

This note means the tester saw oil on the engine, gearbox or underside of the car, but not leaking fast enough to fail.

It is an advisory. A leak is a failure when it is excessive, which the test defines as leaving a pool more than 75 mm across within five minutes.

How it shows up in the records

Advisory 100%
42% came back
The same entry, on the same part of the car, was recorded again at the next test in 42% of cases.
67,588 miles
Median recorded mileage when it first appeared, on cars a median of 7 years old. From the 533 cars whose whole MOT history is recent enough to compare.

Share of cars with this entry, by year of manufacture

5.2%1971–7312%1980–8220%1983–8514%1986–8820%1989–9122%1992–9417%1995–9714%1998–0016%2001–0316%2004–0619%2007–0918%2010–1211%2013–156.4%2016–181.9%2019–210.5%2022–24

Models where it is recorded most

ModelCars with itShareSame-age cars
Vauxhall Meriva15 of 2854%14%
Vauxhall Zafira20 of 4743%12%
Vauxhall Astra80 of 20439%12%
Peugeot 20710 of 2343%18%
Land Rover Defender18 of 5533%11%
Fiat Punto8 of 2236%16%
Mitsubishi L20010 of 3231%11%
Volvo XC909 of 3426%7.5%

Models with 20 or more cars checked here. “Same-age cars” is the share among all checked cars built in the same years, so an older model is compared with older cars.

What to check before you buy

  • After the car has stood for a while, look underneath for fresh drips.
  • Check the oil level on the dipstick, and ask how often the seller tops it up.
  • Look at the underside and any undertray with a torch for wet, fresh oil as opposed to old dry staining.
  • Read the later MOT tests to see whether the note came back.

Cars checked here with this entry

Checking a car with this on its MOT?

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Check a car’s MOT history

Counts are of cars checked on this site, from official public records. Updated 19 Sept 2026 · figures as of 4 Oct 2026. All MOT entries explained.