Vehicle recall check: decode a VIN and find the official source
Enter a 17-character VIN to identify a vehicle. The tool decodes it with the NHTSA vPIC service, which was designed for North American vehicles, so it may return little or nothing for a car built for another market. It does not search any British recall database: to find out whether a car has a safety recall, use the official GOV.UK checker.
Where to check officially
GOV.UK lets you check a car by its registration number for safety recalls that have not been checked or fixed. If you do not know the registration number, you can search by make, model and year of manufacture.
Identify a vehicle from its VIN
Enter a VIN, then press the button.
Method and limitations
The VIN is checked in your browser: 17 characters, letters and digits without I, O or Q. The check digit is not tested because it is only valid for North American vehicles. The VIN is then sent to the NHTSA vPIC decoding service, which returns the make, model and model year when it has them. vPIC was designed for North American vehicles, so it may not know a VIN from another market. This identifies the vehicle; it does not say whether this vehicle has a recall, and no British database is queried. To check for a safety recall, use the GOV.UK checker: with the car registration number it shows safety recalls that have not been checked or fixed, and the car's MOT history; without the registration number you can check by manufacturer, model and year of manufacture. GOV.UK also covers other types of vehicle and parts or accessories. If you find a serious safety defect, GOV.UK says to report it to the manufacturer immediately, and to tell the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) if you are not happy with how the manufacturer is dealing with your report. When the decoding service does not answer in time or answers in an unexpected format, the tool says so and never reports that no recall exists. Privacy: the VIN you enter is sent to the NHTSA decoding service and to nobody else; this site stores nothing. Sources: www.gov.uk ; www.gov.uk ; vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov
Sources
- Check if a vehicle, part or accessory has been recalled — GOV.UK,
- Report a serious safety defect — GOV.UK,
- Vehicle Product Information Catalog (vPIC) API — National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
