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| CAUTION: This info is unofficial and may be out of date, incomplete, inapplicable, or wrong. Use at your own risk. | Service & maintenance | Sorry... | ||||
| General | Body mechanical | Body electrical | Instrumentation (Future) | Engine (Future) | Routine maintenance | Parts |
| VIN & Build | Mid-year Changes | Tech Svc Bulletins |  Under the dashpad |
Tricks | (Future) | (Future) |
Fitting your Scorpio into the population
In this section we'll deal with (a) interpreting the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), (b) determining when your car was built, and (c) finding out if your car incorporates the unannounced design changes Ford made in the 1988 and 1989 Scorpios. This is old stuff to some and partially known to others; but I want to be sure we all move on from a common level. As I add material, I'll equip the section with navigation buttons to help you find what you're after.
The VIN
It's always simpler to work with an example for these things. OK, my Scorpio's VIN is
WF1BT81V1KE892167. From this I know that Ford built this 1989 passenger car (equipped with a 2.9-litre V6 and active seatbelts) at its Niehl Plant in Germany and that 292,166 others were built there before it. Neat, eh? Here's the key.
| Interpreting the VIN Source: Scorpio service manual, dealers' edition, 1989 revision |
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| Code element | Example | Meaning |
| World Manufacturer Identifier | WF1 | Ford |
| Restraint system | B | For passenger cars only. B = Active belt P = Passive belt |
| Line, series, body type | T81 | Passenger sedan (The "T" is a constant.) |
| Engine type | V | 2.9 litre V6 |
| Check digit | 1 | 0 - 9, confirming validity of other elements |
| Model year (not necessarily calendar year) |
K | H = 1987, supposedly not in the US J = 1988 K = 1989 L = 1990. Were there any in the US? |
| Assembly plant | E | Ford's Niehl Plant, Cologne, Germany |
| Production sequence number | 892167 | Serial number, starting at 600001 |
The Build Date
Car manufacturers make unannounced changes during the model year. These changes can affect the specifications on the part you're trying to fix, so in servicing your Scorpio you need to know the exact day on which it was built. Ford's Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) often refer to "vehicles built before...." Vehicles built after the specificed date will have been manufactured with the change already incorporated and thus won't need service under that particular TSB.
There are two places you must look in order to determine the full date on which your Scorpio was born. Here's the drill -
1. Lift the hood and look for the painted 4-digit number on the top of LH strut tower, just behind the air cleaner. That's the month and day your Scorpio was built. The 0921 on my car means it was built on September 21 - about a month into the model year.
2. Open the driver's door and look just above the latch plate on the trailing edge. You'll see the Vehicle Certification Label. In the upper left data area you'll see the month and year of the build-date. The "Sep 88" on my car's VCL pins the year down to 1988.
There's one tiny additional complication. (There would be: it's a Merkur, right?) The VCL is pasted on the door as a final step in the manufacturing process. Depending on the calendar, this might occur a day or two after the car was completed for all practical purposes. So for service considerations the date on the strut tower is more accurate than the date on the VCL.
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