Scan a VIN with YardScan

Add a donor vehicle to your yard by VIN — scan the barcode with your phone or type it — or add it by make and model, then start pulling parts.

What YardScan does

YardScan is your donor-vehicle catalog. Every salvage car you add lives in My Yard — a running list of the vehicles you're parting out, each one tracking its parts, photos and value. Open a car to pull its parts, and YardScan identifies each one (its OE part number and the vehicles it fits) so you can price it and send it straight to your Inventory.

You add a car by scanning its VIN with your phone camera (or typing it), and GridX Connect fills in the exact make, model and year. YardScan is a core module — on every plan, including Free, with nothing extra to switch on.

> [!NOTE] > You'll find YardScan in the sidebar. It opens on My Yard — your vehicles shown as a photo grid — with a big Add a vehicle button in the top corner.

Before you start

  • The vehicle's 17-character VIN — on the driver's-side dashboard (through the windscreen), the driver's-side door-jamb sticker, the title or registration, or the insurance card. No VIN? You can add the vehicle by make and model instead — see *No VIN?* below.
  • Nothing to buy — YardScan is included on every plan. Each plan comes with a number of free vehicle decodes; the How YardScan usage works card at the bottom of My Yard shows how many you have left. More on this in What each plan includes.

Add a vehicle by VIN

1. Open YardScan from the sidebar and press Add a vehicle. 2. Leave the mode on By VIN. 3. Enter the VIN: - On a phone, if your device supports it a Scan VIN button appears — press it and point the camera at the barcode on the door jamb or windscreen, and it reads the VIN for you. Prefer to type? Press Type the VIN instead. - On a computer, type or paste the 17-character VIN into the box. 4. Press Decode. GridX Connect looks up the vehicle and shows it on a card — year, make, model, and details like engine, fuel and drive. 5. Check the card. If a detail looks wrong, press Change to start over with a corrected VIN. When it's right, press Add parts to open the vehicle and start pulling parts — covered in Part out a whole vehicle.

No VIN? Add the vehicle by hand

If you don't have the VIN — or it won't decode — switch to Enter manually and pick the Make and Model (add the Year to narrow it), then press Use this vehicle. These come from GridX Connect's verified vehicle list, so vehicle compatibility stays accurate. Adding a vehicle manually never uses a vehicle decode.

What the vehicle card tells you

| On the card | What it means | |---|---| | Decoded from VIN / Manual entry | How the vehicle was added. | | Engine, Fuel, Drive, Body… | Details read from the VIN, shown as small chips. | | eBay fitment-ready | The vehicle is in eBay's catalogue, so parts you list get guaranteed vehicle compatibility. | | Lists by title | The vehicle isn't in eBay's catalogue — parts still list fine, matched by their title rather than a catalogue entry. |

Vehicle decodes and your plan

Each time you decode a new VIN, it counts against your plan's free vehicle decodes. The How YardScan usage works card at the bottom of My Yard always shows where you stand:

  • You get a set number of free vehicle decodes — each month on paid plans, or as a one-time allowance on Free.
  • Once those are used, on a paid plan each new vehicle uses a few credits from your plan; on Free you can keep adding vehicles by hand, or upgrade to decode more.
  • Re-adding a VIN you've already decoded is always free.
  • Adding a vehicle manually (by make and model) never uses a decode.

If something goes wrong

  • The VIN won't decode. Check you've entered all 17 characters, and watch for look-alikes — a 0 read as O, or a 1 read as I. Re-read the VIN against the door-jamb sticker and press Decode again. Full checklist: Fix a VIN that will not decode.
  • The camera won't scan. Not every phone can scan, and poor light or a worn barcode can defeat it. Press Type the VIN instead and enter it by hand.
  • Still stuck. If a VIN you've double-checked genuinely won't decode, the vehicle may sit outside what the decoder covers — add it with Enter manually instead, or contact support.

> [!TIP] > Adding one vehicle is just the start. To pull many parts off it, identify them, price them and send them to Inventory, see Part out a whole vehicle.