Number under bonnet?

[ady]

Does anybody know what the the number is for on the body that is under the power steering reservour? Is it a body number? Can i find what the chassis or vin number should be from it? I ask because i suspect the originality of my car.All the plates on the car (number plates and chassis plate) were not on the vehicle when i collected it.Ive noticed now that the holes in the number plates do not match any of the holes in the boot or bumper.

[Phil Nottingham]

It is the body number and I do not think there are any production records to match it up with the chassis number - the BMHT certificates do not.

What you can check is manufacture dates of glass, wiper motor and other parts belong to the correct period your car was bulit. The fact that number plate holes do not matchup is not conclusive as dealers did not always use them anyway and plates / boot lids front bumpers may have been replaced by PO's Does engine number match up?

[johnwp5bcoupe]

So where does he stand Phil is the body number and the V5 don't match I suppose the correct procedure would be to send the V5 modified with the new numbers for correction to the DVLA it will destroy the vehicles authenticity though

[Phil Nottingham]

The body number is Pressed Steel's not Rover's. this has no connection with the chassis number as it ties in with what was once an independent company's work referencing system.

Ady ought to trace the PO's - the DVLA will give a list of these for payment of a fee. Of course the one that may have tampered with it will not own up so the earliest known one must be contacted first

The Rover Chassis/engine number is alwys on a plate on the nearside A pillar

There is no conclusive proof that it has been subject to ID fraud - if the DVLA find out and the original/true cannot be traced it will receive a Q plate and will not be entitled to free tax

[johnwp5bcoupe]

I wondered what the numbers refered to there are two plates on the chassis a lower small one with 4 numbers and the longer one with a letter prefix, I would have thought these would be cross referenced somewhere

[Phil Nottingham]

I am sure they would have been somewhere in Rover but a lot of records even if they have not been destroyed would not have been catalogued or cross-referenced. The axles and gearboxes being bought in all had date/numbers too so these too would have ben listed on a build sheet somehow for warranty purposes but BLMC may not have been quite so fastidious as the old Rover Co.

By the end of P5B production Pressed Steel Co who also made made Prestcold fridges had merged with Fisher-Ludlow who were the BMC body suppliers and the new company then part of BMH was called Pressed Steel Fisher which just became a division as the Rover Co did in BLMC.

Perhaps soemone could spend a few weeks at Gaydon looking these out - it wouls make a somewhat boring but valuable book for some especially when numbers did not tie in

[johnwp5bcoupe]

What a cross reference that would be Phil it could be called the Book of Doom

[Roy of the Rovers]

I seem to remember someone saying that the chassis number was also stamped into the subframe somewhere. But yet again the subframe could have been changed at anytime in the vehicles life.

I think this is known as the preverbial can of worms. If I were you I'd ignore your suspicions and enjoy owning the car. Otherwise it could only end in tears if you find out something you don't like..... Whats the point..