My wife drives a 2002 VW Beetle 2.0 Auto Trans. The check engine light is on and when I run the OBD II Auto Scanner on it I get the P1296 code. Can someone please tell me what this code means?

P1296 indicates a cooling system malfunction. Is the vehicle warming up properly & reaching operating temp in a normal manner. Usually it is something like a stuck open thermostat that makes it take too long for the engine to warm up. It could also be a problem with the coolant temp sensor.

Thanks for the info. It appears that it might be the thermostat sticking open. This VW has a cold temp light and it appears to be warming up abnormally. I will monitor the warm up period closer and will update this forum once I repair the problem. Thanks again !!!

P1296 indicates a cooling system malfunction. Is the vehicle warming up properly & reaching operating temp in a normal manner. Usually it is something like a stuck open thermostat that makes it take too long for the engine to warm up. It could also be a problem with the coolant temp sensor.

I monitored the cold temp light for approximately 1 week. At Idle, with a cold engine, it averaged approximately 5 minutes each time before the light would go off. I decided to change the coolant temp sensor and so for so good. It had the black ECT, I replaced it with the green. Thanks Again !!!