eBay Parts Compatibility Explained: K-Type, TecDoc and How to Get Fitment Right in the UK

eBay UK parts compatibility runs on K-Type: the TecDoc identifier for a passenger-car vehicle type. Attach the right K-Types to a listing and it appears in eBay’s “fits your vehicle” filter for every matching car; get them wrong or leave them off and the listing is invisible to buyers who have told eBay what they drive. The same K-Types, mapped once, also power a “fits your car” search on your own website.

This post explains what K-Type is, how it relates to TecDoc, N-Type, KBA numbers and the American ACES standard, and how to build compatibility that survives contact with real buyers. It underpins our part fitment mapping and eBay Motors integration services.

What K-Type is

TecDoc, run by TecAlliance, is the European aftermarket’s catalogue standard. Inside it every passenger-car vehicle type has a unique numeric ID, the K-Type (sometimes written KType, held in TecDoc’s “table 120”). One K-Type is one combination of make, model, body, engine, power in kW and HP, capacity, fuel, drive and build years. A Golf Mk7 1.6 TDI 105 and the same car with the 110 engine are different K-Types.

Commercial vehicles have their own equivalent, the N-Type (“table 532”), and there are separate IDs for axles and engines. Alongside the K-Type TecDoc also carries the KBA number, the German type-approval code (HSN/TSN), which is useful for German cross-referencing and irrelevant to a UK registration.

Parts suppliers publish their articles into TecDoc with attributes, OE numbers, trade numbers and GTINs, plus linkages to the K-Types they fit, often with criteria such as “from chassis number”, “for PR code 1LJ” or “fitting position: front axle”. The TecDoc data format is the full specification.

How eBay uses it

eBay UK, along with Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Australia, accepts K-Type numbers to attach compatible vehicles to a parts listing. eBay’s US site uses a different key, the ePID, built on ACES data. eBay also publishes a Master Vehicle List per site, licensed only for matching vehicles to eBay listings, which tells you which K-Types eBay knows about.

The commercial point is simple. One listing carrying a full compatibility list replaces dozens of separate listings, and compatibility drives the “fits your vehicle” filter that most parts buyers now use. eBay’s own seller guide calls it the biggest single determinant of parts visibility, and our experience with UK breakers and retailers agrees.

You add compatibility manually in the listing form, in bulk through File Exchange or CSV, or through the eBay APIs and channel tools such as M2E Pro (Magento), Frooition, 3Dsellers, Linnworks and ChannelAdvisor. At volume the CSV or API route is the only sane one, and it needs a clean source table of SKU to K-Type behind it.

K-Type versus the alternatives

The gap that matters: there is no clean mapping between K-Type and ACES vehicle IDs. Amazon’s Part Finder and “Confirmed Fit” are ACES-driven, so a retailer selling on eBay UK and Amazon UK needs both, and the K-Type to Amazon mapping has to be built or bought from a fitment provider. Version 2.0 of the ACES databases was released in March 2026, so any mapping you bought earlier needs checking.

Getting from a UK reg to a K-Type

On eBay the buyer’s vehicle is already resolved. On your own site it is not, so you need the VRM to K-Type step. Commercial data providers (Vehicle Data Global, cap hpi, DriveRightData) return a K-Type or TecDoc type ID alongside the DVLA fields, and TecAlliance offers a vehicle identification API of its own. DVLA VES does not return one, and it does not return the model either.

The catch is ambiguity. A VRM often resolves to several candidate K-Types where engine variants share a DVLA-level description. Resolve it with the engine code, kW, VIN prefix or build date, and if you still cannot, ask the buyer. The full flow is on our reg lookup integration page.

Where compatibility goes wrong

Most eBay fitment complaints trace back to one of these:

• Sibling K-Types. TecAlliance creates a new K-Type for every meaningful variant. A supplier or provider maps to a superseded or neighbouring type and the part “almost” fits.
• Engine-code ambiguity. DVLA holds no engine code. Two 2.0 TDI engines of the same capacity (VAG CBAB and CBBB, for instance) take different parts.
• Chassis-number and build-date splits. The linkage says “from chassis 1J-1-000001” or “up to 05/2012”. If your listing does not surface that criterion, half the buyers who match the K-Type will be wrong.
• Registration date is not build date. A car registered in March was built the previous year; mid-year part changes get mis-assigned.
• Missing fitting position or side. Left, right, front, rear and “for vehicles with PR code” criteria dropped in the export.
• OE-number format drift. Spaces, hyphens and leading zeros produce three versions of one number and break cross-references.
• Coverage gaps. Motorcycles, classics, kit cars and 4x4 chassis splits have thin or no TecDoc data. Breakers face this daily because a donor car is a specific VIN, not a type.

Building fitment that holds up

Start from a single fitment table: SKU, K-Type, criteria, source and date. Load supplier TecDoc linkages where they exist; build bespoke rows where they do not, and mark them as such. Attach OE numbers with a normalised format and a supersession chain. Add GTINs. Then generate every channel from that table: eBay compatibility CSVs, your website’s “fits your car” index, and (through a mapping provider) Amazon ACES files.

Keep the criteria. A compatibility row without “front, from VIN X” is a return waiting to happen. Show it on the listing and on your product page, and put the buyer’s confirmation step in the journey. Re-validate the table when TecAlliance issues updates and when a supplier changes its catalogue.

For breakers, work from the donor vehicle: capture the VIN, resolve its exact K-Type once, and inherit it onto every part stripped from that car. That is the fastest route to accurate eBay compatibility at yard volume.

FAQ

What is a K-Type number?

A K-Type is TecDoc’s unique numeric ID for one passenger-car vehicle type (make, model, body, engine, power, fuel, drive, build years). Catalogues link parts to K-Types to state fitment. eBay UK uses it for parts compatibility.

Does eBay UK use K-Type or ePID?

K-Type. eBay UK, DE, FR, IT, ES and AU take K-Type numbers; the US site uses ePIDs based on ACES. Listing the same part on both needs two compatibility lists.

Can I get K-Types from the DVLA?

No. DVLA VES returns make, colour, fuel, engine size and status fields but no model, VIN or K-Type. You need a commercial data provider that returns a TecDoc type ID.

What about parts with no TecDoc coverage?

Build your own fitment table. It is more work, but for kit cars, classics, motorcycles and 4x4 chassis splits it is the only accurate option, and it becomes a competitive advantage on eBay and your own site.

Ready to sort your fitment? Start with part fitment mapping and, if eBay is your main channel, our eBay Motors integration service.