Serial / VIN Numbers

Decoding Honda VIN Numbers

The VIN number is a 17 digit code, which can tell you various things about your machine. Here we will decode what each number means. We refer to each position in the VIN as a digit, they can be either a NUMBER or a LETTER.

• 1st Digit - Country of manufacture. 1 or 4 for USA, J for Japan
• 2nd Digit - Manufacturer. H or 7 for Honda
• 3rd Digit - Type of machine. 3 or 8 for All Terrain Vehicle
• 4-7 Digits - Model Code. TE14 for TRX300FW TE15 for TRX300.
• 8th Digit - I have not been able to decode this, seems to be related to the model number somehow. Possibly 3 indicates New Hampshire specific machines, where 0 is used for all others? I have also seen U in this position?
• 9th Digit - Check digit. This is calculated somehow based on the previous digits. It's used to make sure that the VIN is not being fabricated falsely.
• 10th Digit - Tells us the year.
  • J - 1988
  • K - 1989
  • L - 1990
  • M - 1991
  • N - 1992
  • P - 1993
  • R - 1994
  • S - 1995
  • T - 1996
  • V - 1997
  • W - 1998
  • X - 1999
  • Y - 2000

Note: O, U, Q are NOT used in VIN codes because they can be too easily confused with 0 (ZERO)

• 11th Digit - Assembly Plant.
  • A - Ohio, USA
  • C - Saitama, Japan
  • K - Kumamoto, Japan
  • H - Hamamatsu, Japan
  • S - Suzuka, Japan
  • T - Tochigi, Japan
  • 4 - South Carolina, USA
• 12-17th Digits - This is the sequential production number, last 4 always digits. As each machine rolls off the assembly line these increase by 1.

ENGINE SERIAL NUMBERS

This is something I rarely see anybody talking about. Not many people realize you can find the year of the engine by the code stamped into the crankcase. This code is located roughly below the carb, there is a raised boss on the case with the number stamped into it. Like the VIN, it contains the model code, TE14 or TE15 depending on if it came out of a 2wd or 4wd TRX300. To determine the year we must look at the last 7 digits. In the chart at the top of this page, you will notice the year code starts at 8000025 for the 1988 model year, and goes 8100003 for 1989, 8200001 for 1990 and so on. The digit right after the 8 increases by 1 every year. You can easily use the chart for models from 1988-1996, but the chart does not cover from 1997-2000. Using the same pattern that the previous models used, I have come up with the following numbers for the years absent on the chart:

• 1997 TE15-8900000
• 1998 TE15-9000000
• 1999 TE15-9100000
• 2000 TE15-9200000

2wd models substitute TE15- for TE14-