Enter a number above to see the breakdown. Nothing is sent anywhere — the decoding runs entirely in your browser.

What this tool will not do. Mahindra has never published a public key for these numbers. That means model year, assembly plant and production sequence cannot be read from a CJ340 or CJ540 number with any confidence, and any tool claiming otherwise is guessing. This one identifies only the segments that are independently documented — the CJ-3B lineage marker, the model family, the prefixes used for chassis and engine stamps — and marks everything else as undocumented. If you need a build date, the registration document or a dating certificate from a recognised club is the reliable route, not a number.

Reference

What is documented, and where to find the numbers on the vehicle.

Documented prefixes

CJ3B-4: Willys CJ-3B lineage marker — the design Mahindra licensed in 1947
DK: Chassis number series commonly seen on CJ340-family vehicles
DJ: Engine number series stamped on the Peugeot XDP 4.90 block
DP: Appears in Mahindra's own model designation, e.g. "CJ 340 DP"

Model family

340: Short wheelbase — CJ340, Indian Brave, Bushranger, Bahia
540: Long wheelbase, ~200 mm longer — CJ540, MM540, Indian Chief, Marksman

Where to look

Chassis: Stamped on the frame rail and repeated on the vehicle's identification plate
Engine: Stamped on a machined pad on the cylinder block
Papers: V5C, carte grise, Fahrzeugbrief or equivalent — check these agree with the vehicle

Common formats

Classic: CJ3B-4 DK followed by a serial
Engine: DJ followed by a serial
17-char: Seen on later and export cars, e.g. MBE340DP… / MAB540DP…

Help complete this

Every segment marked undocumented above is undocumented because no public source records it — not because it is meaningless. Owners collectively hold the answer.

If you own one of these vehicles, the single most useful thing you can send is your chassis number, engine number, the market it was sold in, and the year on the registration document. Enough of those together will reveal the pattern that no single owner can see, and this page will be updated with what they show.

Which model do I have? All guides CJ-3B parts interchange

Why the numbers are confusing

The CJ340 was built over a long run, exported under at least eight names, and assembled in more than one country — India, Greece and Germany all produced vehicles. Chassis numbering was not consistent across those routes, and the classic CJ3B-4 DK form sits alongside seventeen-character numbers on later and export cars.

That history is worth understanding before you try to read anything into a number. The export names guide covers who built what, where, and under which badge — including the Greek assembly operation and the German line at Werdau that produced roughly 200 CJ 340s and 600 CJ 540s between 1993 and 1995.