Where to find the VIN and chassis number on a Nissan Patrol Y61

Location 1: the identification plate on the left centre pillar (Australian wagons)

Australia’s Administrator of Vehicle Standards approved the identification plate for the Nissan Patrol Y61 wagon under approval number 12482, held by Nissan Motor Co. (Australia). The approval and its records sit in the Australian Government’s Road Vehicle Certification System (RVCS). The approvals issued in March 2008 and October 2012 give the plate location as “LHS B-pillar”: the left-hand centre pillar, between the front and rear doors. The road vehicle descriptor for 2007-model wagons adds that from April 2008 an adhesive label is fitted at a point on the government’s rear-left view of a car, replacing a metal plate. Each approval says the plate carries the details in its schedule “with the typical VIN replaced with the relevant VIN”, so the plate shows that car’s own VIN. Open the left front door and look on the pillar.

Location 2: the older metal plate on the firewall (Australian wagons)

Before the label moved to the pillar, the plate was under the bonnet. The first approval for the Nissan Patrol Y61 wagon, issued in April 1999, gives the plate location as “Centre of engine firewall”, the panel between the engine bay and the cabin; the July 2006 approval gives “FIREWALL LHS” (left-hand side). The 2007-model descriptor confirms that “Earlier vehicles were equipped with a metal compliance plate”. On an Australian Y61 built before April 2008, lift the bonnet and look along the whole firewall, starting from the middle. An Australian-market car with no plate in either place should come with a written explanation from the seller.

Location 3: the VIN on the right-hand chassis rail (Australian wagons)

Every road vehicle descriptor we read for the Nissan Patrol Y61 wagon, from 1999 to 2012, gives a typical vehicle identification number with its place on the Australian Government’s grid location charts: 12-S-27 in every descriptor from March 1999 to March 2008, and 12-P-21 in the May 2012 one. Chart 12 is titled “Chassis Number Location RHS to View Chassis Rails”, a ladder frame drawn from the right-hand side with the front to the right. In our reading of that chart, both grid squares fall on the nearer, right-hand rail, between the front crossmember and the middle of the frame, and the 2012 square lies further back. The chart shows a generic frame, not a Y61, so search the outer face of the right-hand rail from the front wheel arch back to below the centre pillar with a torch, and brush off mud instead of grinding the metal.

Gulf Safari, Super Safari and Patrol Pickup: ask the agent

No official source we found shows where Nissan marks the VIN or chassis number on a Gulf-market Patrol Y61, the Safari, Super Safari or Patrol Pickup that Nissan’s UAE agents sold, with a 2024 “finale edition” of the Super Safari: we found no Y61 owner’s manual online, and the Australian records above cover Australian-market wagons only. Do not assume a Gulf car follows them. Before you pay, ask Nissan’s UAE agent, named by Nissan in 2022 as Al Masaood Automobiles in Abu Dhabi and Arabian Automobiles Co. in Dubai, where the chassis number is on that car, then read it there yourself. The Ministry of Interior (MOI) lists an accident inquiry by chassis number among its public e-services, so the number you read on the car is also the one to check.

VINCheckr’s recall section lists recalls of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by make, model and year, and NHTSA lists no Patrol for any model year from 1997 to 2024, so for a Nissan Patrol Y61 that section will usually show nothing. That is not a clean record. Give the chassis number to Nissan’s UAE agent and ask which campaigns apply to the car and whether each was carried out.

Reading a Y61 VIN, or a Japanese Safari chassis number

The Australian descriptors give 17-character typical VINs for the Nissan Patrol Y61 wagon, such as JN1TESY61A0123456 for the 3.0-litre diesel and JN1TFSY61A0123456 for the 4.8-litre petrol of the 2007 model; a typical VIN shows the pattern, not a real car’s number. NHTSA’s world manufacturer identifier (WMI) register records the first three characters, JN1, against Nissan Motor Company, Ltd for passenger cars. The first character is a region code, not proof of where a car was built or sold: NHTSA said in a 2024 interpretation letter that a manufacturer identifier need not show the country of manufacture. In these patterns the model code Y61 fills positions 7 to 9, where a US-rule VIN puts its check digit in position 9, so a US-style check-digit test or decoder does not apply.

A Safari built for Japan uses a different form. Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) published Nissan’s March 2018 recall of passenger airbag inflators, which lists four Safari model types (TA-WFGY61, GF-WGY61, KH-WTY61 and KG-VRGY61) and gives their chassis numbers as ranges such as WFGY61-000023 to WFGY61-003659: a model code, a hyphen and a serial, not 17 characters. If a Safari’s Mulkiya (registration card) shows a number like this, read the same characters on the car, check whether the serial falls inside one of the recall’s ranges, and ask Nissan’s UAE agent whether the inflator was replaced.

Plate, rail and Mulkiya must carry the same number

The Australian approvals are explicit about where the plate belongs: Nissan Australia had to fix it “in the position specified as Plate Location”, and only to vehicles covered by the approval. The approvals list the details the plate shows, including the make, the model (“Y61 WAGON”), the seating capacity and the VIN, and give its colour as silver. On an Australian Y61, the plate’s VIN and the VIN on the chassis rail should therefore be identical, and both should match the Mulkiya.

Walk away from an Australian-market Patrol Y61 whose plate sits somewhere else, is held on by fresh rivets or screws, or looks newer than the paint around it, and from any Y61 whose rail has been ground, filled, welded or freshly painted where the number should be. On a Gulf-market car, judge the number against the position Nissan’s UAE agent gives you. A twenty-year-old frame can be rusty, but rust does not explain characters that differ.

If a Y61 chassis number is unreadable or different

No official UAE source we found sets out what happens when a chassis number cannot be read or does not match the registration, so there is no official procedure to quote. Stop before any money changes hands, and take the car and its Mulkiya to the licensing authority or police of the emirate where it is registered: in Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Police, whose public e-services include an accident inquiry by chassis number; in Dubai, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). Ask whether the car can be transferred with its numbers as they are.

For a car registered in Dubai, also ask the seller to agree to the RTA’s Technical Vehicle Status Report: the RTA says it covers the vehicle’s ownership history, needs the owner’s agreement to disclose the data and does not include accidents. Compare what it records with the numbers on the car, and run the accident inquiry separately.