I have bought a pair of ball joints for the front. The catalogue states Part x up to 5J-8-3172973 and part y from VIN 5J-8-3172974 onwards.

 

Now my VIN is

 

My reading was that I needed part x and not part y. However when I checked the parts against the car the car had part y fitted.

Did I misinterpret the VIN advice so badly?

To convert ViN to that format of chassis number, you replace the 9th character of VIN with a dash (-).

So your chassis number is 5J-93165977; giving part y as the correct fit.

Non-obvious, right?

 

 

Sometimes the 11th character is also replaced by a dash.

 

The current part numbers for your car are 6R0407365B and 6R0407366B for left and right respectively.

Thanks,

I will remember for next time.

Agree, not very obvious.