VIN trouble?

I wasn't sure where to post this. Since it happened at a garage, I thought I'd post here.

I took my Monster for an MOT last week and got a bit of a surprise. The tester said he wouldn't need the V5 or the previous test certificate, since everything is computerised these days. He then came out and told me that the bike has the wrong VIN stamped on the frame!

I had a close look at it with the tester and agreed that the final number could be either an 8 or a 9. The V5 and every other MOT certificate I've got says it's an 8. The tester was adamant that it's a 9, so refused to do the test. I'll put a photo up if anyone's interested and you can form your own opinion.

He's told me to contact the DVLA to explain and presumably get every piece of paperwork replaced. Has anyone else had any experience of this? I'm a bit worried. The MOT runs out in a couple of weeks. Should I bother or should I take it to the same person that's done the last four tests without question?

The Monster was first registered by a dealer and had one other owner before me.

Cheers

Give it a light rub with some wet and dry fine grit paper until you can fully see the outline of the numbers.

If you are stuck with the wrong number I would go direct to the Original Dealer who registered it and get them to sort it out and also the bike MOT'd.

If it is correct then take it back and tell the Test Staion to get it tested as normal.

i had this with my SS two of the digits were transposed on the log book or something

contact the dvla or get a form from the post office
they will 'investigate' by sending you another form which asks for vin numbers on log books frames previous mot's etc

and eventually issue a corrected V5

well that was my experience at least

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by russ77

I wasn't sure where to post this. Since it happened at a garage, I thought I'd post here.

I took my Monster for an MOT last week and got a bit of a surprise. The tester said he wouldn't need the V5 or the previous test certificate, since everything is computerised these days. He then came out and told me that the bike has the wrong VIN stamped on the frame!

I had a close look at it with the tester and agreed that the final number could be either an 8 or a 9. The V5 and every other MOT certificate I've got says it's an 8. The tester was adamant that it's a 9, so refused to do the test. I'll put a photo up if anyone's interested and you can form your own opinion.

He's told me to contact the DVLA to explain and presumably get every piece of paperwork replaced. Has anyone else had any experience of this? I'm a bit worried. The MOT runs out in a couple of weeks. Should I bother or should I take it to the same person that's done the last four tests without question?

The Monster was first registered by a dealer and had one other owner before me.

Cheers

Sounds like the tester is being an arse if you ask me - find another tester and take your previous paperwork with you to prove it's an 8 instead of faffing around trying to get any sense out of the DVLA

Originally Posted by Scotty

i had this with my SS two of the digits were transposed on the log book or something

contact the dvla or get a form from the post office
they will 'investigate' by sending you another form which asks for vin numbers on log books frames previous mot's etc

and eventually issue a corrected V5

well that was my experience at least

Just had the same experience with my SL. A digit was just missing from the V5. All other MOT's had been done correctly but the last one raised the problem. A new V5 has now been issued with the correct VIN. I have heard that Ducati were not very good at issuing the correct VIN initially back in the nineties, ie. they told the dealers what the VIN was, the dealers did not check it against the frame and registered the bike with the VIN as provided by Ducati.

i agree with pedro the tester is being an arse. a right jobsworth.

[nambduke]

......saved me a boat load of money once! I went to pick up a bike once which on the face of it looked a good deal, but examining the V5 and MOT certs, some of the numbers didn't match the bike. It might have been legit, but I wasn't going to take a chance. The owner even said, "just get it retested. It'll be alright". I said, "You get it tested and I'll think about it!"

And this is a different story to the VFR horror story I have previously written about!

Regards
Mark Nambduke

Thanks for the advice, folks. I'll take it to get tested at my usual place this week, mention it to the bloke that's done the last three, then speak to the DVLA afterwards.

I'm confident the bike's not nicked at least. I agree with some people's opinion of the tester. He didn't seem to like me nosing around the display bikes while I was waiting either, one of which I was very interested in... Won't be going back there!

My bike and log book don't match either. It was picked up at MOT time about three years ago. The tester warned me to expect contact from the DVLA or whoever but nothing happened. Now he just logs it on the computer using the registration number rather than the frame number. Even then it comes back as an ST2 when its really an ST4!!

[jerry]

when I imported and registered my S4 in thailand we had to rub off all the headstock paint to get a good look at the numbers they were so faint,seems ducati dont engrave or hammer the numbers they use some kind of laser scriber that does not cut very deep.

had a problem with a bike I imported, the DVLA transposed numbers when I registered the bike in the UK

took two years of writing to them to get the frame numbers corrected