Vehicle Identification
Number - Check Digit
The following example Vehicle Identification Number VIN may be used to illustrate how to calculate
the check digit value 1M8GDM9A?KP042788, where the
question mark will be the unknown check digit.
| VIN |
1 |
M |
8 |
G |
D |
M |
9 |
A |
? |
K |
P |
0 |
4 |
2 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
| Value |
1 |
4 |
8 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
7 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
| Weight |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
10 |
0 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
| Products |
8 |
28 |
48 |
35 |
16 |
12 |
18 |
10 |
0 |
18 |
56 |
0 |
24 |
10 |
28 |
24 |
16 |
| Position |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
| Weight |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
10 |
0 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
The products (8,28,48,35,16,12,18,10,0,18,56,0,24,10,28,24,16) are all added together to obtain a Sum of 351
Check digit = Sum Mod 11
If the check digit value is 10 then this goes back into the VIN Vehicle Identification
Number as a character X.
How Do I Calculate VIN Check Digit?
Step 1
Transliteration consists of removing all of the letters from a Vehicle Identification Number and substituting
them with their appropriate numerical counterparts. These numerical values
can be found in the table below. I, O and Q are not allowed,
and can not exist in a valid VIN; for the purpose of this example, they have been
filled in with N/A (not applicable). Numerical digits use their own values.
Transliteration key: values for VIN Decoding
| A: 1 |
B: 2 |
C: 3 |
D: 4 |
E: 5 |
F: 6 |
G: 7 |
H: 8 |
N/A |
| J: 1 |
K: 2 |
L: 3 |
M: 4 |
N: 5 |
N/A |
P: 7 |
N/A |
R: 9 |
|
S: 2 |
T: 3 |
U: 4 |
V: 5 |
W: 6 |
X: 7 |
Y: 8 |
Z: 9 |
Step 2
Step 3
The following table shows how the products (products = Value x Weight) of a VIN
Vehicle Identification Number
may be evaluated.
The following is the weight factor for each position in the VIN. The 9th position
is that of the check digit. It has been substituted with a 0, which will cancel
it out in the multiplication step.