I was looking at the 2005 serial numbers in the BLACK BOOK. They all start out with the following numbers/letters: 1G1Y24U855. The last six numbers tell how many were made. 100001 thru 137341. But the VIN number on my car is different. It starts out: 1G1Y24UX55. Mine has a an X after the U. The book says there is an 8 after the U. In the book, it says "the ninth digit is the security code and varies". So, what does that mean? What does the X mean? Is there a place I can look to see what these numbers/letters mean? Thanks for any help.

 

The 9th place is a check digit, can be 0-9 OR "X":

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1576261427-post9.html

 

That's correct. In 2005 that was a "check" or meaningless digit in the VIN.

Dave

 

A "randomly generated" check character.

 

it's not random. check digits are calculated values.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle...ication_Number

 

So, that number or X was just put there to fill in the space so that all the VIN numbers would have the same amount of spaces?

 

Or, what is it a value of?

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Correct it is not random. It's a "check digit". It prevents an invalid VIN for being entered by fat fingering. The letters and numbers entered for the VIN must pass the check digit algorithm or it returns "invalid VIN".

GM VIN CHECK DIGIT VERIFICATION
To determine check digit (9th digit) of your car you need to take the VIN and assign any letters in the VIN with a set value (number) as follows:
A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, D = 4, E = 5, F = 6, G = 7, H = 8,
J = 1, K = 2, L = 3, M = 4, N = 5, O = 6, P = 7, R = 9,
S = 2, T = 3, U = 4, V = 5, W = 6, X = 7, Y = 8, Z = 9

Any numbers in the VIN remain the same (not replaced) and thus you have a 17 digit number.
Then you must multiply each of the 17 digits by a set "weight" (multiplier). The weight applied to each digit is as follows:

1st = 8, 2nd = 7, 3rd = 6, 4th = 5, 5th = 4, 6th = 3, 7th = 2, 8th = 10,
9th = 0 (check digit), 10th = 9, 11th = 8, 12th = 7, 13th = 6, 14th = 5,
15th = 4, 16th = 3, 17th = 2

After multiplying each VIN digit by the associated weight - add up the results of all 17 products. Then divide by 11 and the remainder is your check digit.
If the remained is 10, then the check digit is 'X'.

Here's an example: VIN = 1G1BL52P7TR115520 (note '7' is the check digit)

VIN 1 G 1 B L 5 2 P 7 T R 1 1 5 5 2 0

Assigned Values 1 7 1 2 3 5 2 7 7 3 9 1 1 5 5 2 0

Multiplier 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Add the products: (1 X 8) + (7 X 7) + (1 X 6) ... (0 X 2) = 337

Divide 337 by 11 which gives you 30, and a remainder of 7 which is the same as the 9th digit of the VIN.

 

Very 08vycpe! Never knew exactly how the system worked. Good thing it's left up to a computer. Thanks for posting.

 

Here"s another way of looking at your vin#, from a car guys point of view, you have one of the few " Special X Models" , not sure how many of these so called random spacing x models were produced in 05 but you have one, Congratulations, from this point on " Welcome to the X model --------( fill in your car info) Special Edition ! Now you can ask an additional few thousand, when you sell,


just saying you could,

 

But what happens when a VIN doesn't use a check digit?

 

"Does a 10 pound bag of flour make a really big biscuit?"

 

Must a BIG flower.

 

fixed it .................