VIN Number is very important part of our vehicle. Vehicle which don’t contain VIN number can’t ride on roads. The question is How to find VIN Number? Sometimes it’s difficult to locate VIN Number or Nameplate with Chassis Number. We tell you how to find number in easy way.

VIN – what is it?

As we mentioned above, each vehicle has its own individual identification number, on the basis of which it is possible to determine the manufacturer, body type, capacity, model or model year. To fully understand what a VIN number is, you should learn the meaning of each character.

So the first three characters of the VIN are WMI, which is the international manufacturer code. It allows you to check which company produced the vehicle and in which country it was made.

The next six characters in the VIN number (VDS) define the basic characteristics of the vehicle, i.e. body type, model, series and engine type. And the ninth position of the number is the VIN code check mark.

The next items are the so-called VIS serial number. The first one is usually the code designation of the year of production, the second is the code of the plant assembling the vehicle (with the exception of Ford). The twelfth to the seventeenth boxes are the serial number of the vehicle. The VIN usually ends with four digits, but sometimes there are also letters here.

As you can see, decoding VIN can be very helpful, e.g. when buying a vehicle. And vehicle identification is one of the first steps in vehicle diagnostic testing and is an important part of it.

How to find VIN Number

So where is the VIN on the car? The vehicle identification number can be found in the vehicle documents and in the registration certificate (in the Polish document it is in field E). Where else is the VIN? The code is located, among others:

  • on the door frame,
  • under the hood,
  • under the windshield,
  • on the driver’s door.

Other typical manufacturers’ VIN locations are in the right wheel arch, near the right shock, or on the left side of the dashboard housing. However, the location of the VIN in a car always depends on a specific make, model and year, so finding it may be difficult. Especially when we have a car that is not very popular on our roads. Our experience shows that in older cars, VIN was placed on the vehicle’s nameplate or was “stamped” or stamped on the frame or body of the vehicle. On new cars, the number is often visible as a sticker behind the windshield. If we cannot locate the number, it is worth going to the SKP and asking a diagnostician for help. The easiest way, however, is to use our tool, which will allow you to quickly find out where the VIN is on the vehicle you are interested in. Of course, if we are looking for a new car, many advertisers enter this number in the advertisement for the sale of the car and already allow us to check it.

Summing up, remember that the VIN code should be permanently placed on the chassis or the body. And the most reliable is the number stamped on the fixed element, not the glued one.