Hello where can i find the VIN on a 1992 LS Lexus. I believed the car was involved in an accident before, the driver side door was changed, and i just couldn't find the VIN on the door or the front. Any suggestion?
A couple of places that come to mind are driver's side windshield base and possibly the hood or trunk wall.
This car may possible have VIN stickers all over the place. I can't remember when the law came into effect, but there is a law in the US that all parts need to be stickered with the VIN.
Since you cannot find the VIN on the door or the doorjamb, I would say this is an excellent indication that the door and/or the jamb has been replaced! There should be stickers on the hood, the front fenders, the rear 1/4 panels, and the trunk lid, as well as all the doors. Any panel that does not have them has been replaced (provided they were required in 1992, I can't recall. I know 95's were stickered.)
The VIN appears in several locations, including:
- on a label on the driver's door;
- on a plate on the dashboard on the driver's side, visible from outside the vehicle;
- on a plate on the firewall;
- on stickers on major body parts, including the hood, deck lid, doors, front fenders, radiator cross member
The official VIN plate is on the lower corner of the windshield riveted to the dashboard. It's also stamped in a few (not very) 'hidden' places on the chassis or unibody sheetmetal - but for obvious reasons they don't want these 'secret locations' to be published where they would help the thieves.
And the VIN (not in one piece - it's in chunks, including the serial number sequence at the end) is stamped into the 'build plate' in the engine compartment on the firewall. The build plate has a wealth of other information not coded into the VIN, like the paint color code, trim, transmission and rear end codes, etc. That's the true 'birth certificate' of the car. ;-)
The body shop should have transferred any labels over from the doorpost or door edge of the wrecked pieces, or at least scraped them off and stuck them in a baggie in the glovebox.
When labels are missing or altered, I start thinking Auto Theft: They steal a nice car, buy a wrecked car of the same year and model for the clean title (or vice-versa), swap all the VIN tags over to the stolen car, and sell it. If the stolen car's VIN was printed on those door tags, they may have peeled them off and used "an accident" as a convenient excuse as to why they are missing.
If you have any questions whether the numbers match, go talk to the local Auto Theft Detail officers at your Police or Sheriff's Office. They have a list of where all the Hidden VIN's are, and can spot signs of fraud easier than you because they know what to look for... If something isn't right and you kept good records on the seller(s), they may be able to go back and get them.
A savvy mechanic could also spot this easily, because many items (the engine transmission paint and trim) won't match the build plate. People do not normally make a stick car into an automatic or change out a 3-speed auto for a 4-speed, and if they do the butchery needed to make everything fit would be obvious.
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Google gave me this:
Wow... very detailed. thank you Bruce...thanks to everyone that responded.
The VIN on EVERY car or truck made since the late '80s is in the windshield, lower corner near the steering wheel (assuming USA cars). That is, stand outside the car next to the driver's door, and look through the windshield at its base with the A Pillar. The VIN is located on a placard at the base of the dash board, where it intersects with the windshield.
There is a posibility that the other poster is not in North America. We do have several other places represented in this newsgroup. Newsgroups are not restricted in that way. I belong to another newsgroup that has members from all over the world.
Charles of Schaumburg
Yes, that is true, the OP could be from any market in the universe, but the OP posted from a Bellsouth account, this is a USA company. Odds are good he or she is a USA poster.
Where is the VIN on your car? My guess it is in the same place, or the exact opposite side of the car. VINs are a universal identification system for every car and truck built. It has 17 digits, more than enough to give every car a unique ID.
The VIN will still be on at the base of the windshield
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