(Malfunction in cooling system)

Was slightly alarmed by the engine management light coming on last Saturday, so I managed to get my Octy RS to the dealers to get the error code investigated. It threw up fault "17704 - P1296 - 035 (Malfunction in cooling system)". The dealer says it was showing the thermostat as the source of the fault, but that they tested it, and it seemed to be fine :confused:

I am slightly worried about this particular fault, as at this time last year, I had a spot of bother on a long slow drive in ice (-4 deg), when all of a sudden the sound of those dreaded Skoda "bings", accompanied by an array of red dashboard symbols forced me to pull up sharpish.

After the dealer sorted me out for a rental car and arranged for the car to be towed, it emerged thant the thermostat failed - causing the two :confused: water pumps to fail. Thankfully all the costs were covered under warranty.

Could this be history repeating itself, or does anyone know of known issues with the thermostat/ waterpump(s)?

...anyone????

I have heard of some software problems in the engine ECU that brings up this fault. Get your dealer to contact techncial if they havent allready to check if its relevant to yuor car.

Still having trouble with this error code. I have had the car back a total of 3 times in the last 3 weeks to the dealer, and it is throwing up the same code each time.

They have contacted the "technical dept" about it, giving details of the problem I had last year (see first post in this thread). All they can do is scratch their heads.

The car is booked in for a service on Monday, so I hope they can sort out the problem. At this stage, I wouldn't mind if they just put black tape over the engine management light!

Hi, I have the same problem (p1296) I reset it myself but it came back about a week later.

The VW group are saying that there were a bad batch of sender units, which have black covers. The improved and current sender is green and they say it takes about 30min to replace......

Is there any one out there that has solved this problem

If it's the engine temperature sender you are referring to, that was replaced at a later date also. So far so good according to my mate who bought my old Octy.

hi, wondering how to reset the light yourself? I'm getting the code P1296 coming up and had it reset by the RAC, thinking of changing the sensor myself... 3questions, anyone here done it? Is it hard to gain access and do? And finally do you need diagnostics to reset the light? cheers

As far as I remember, the cause was a fault in the expansion bottle of the cooling system. A new expansion bottle with integral sensor cured the problem.

hi, wondering how to reset the light yourself? I'm getting the code P1296 coming up and had it reset by the RAC, thinking of changing the sensor myself... 3questions, anyone here done it? Is it hard to gain access and do? And finally do you need diagnostics to reset the light? cheers

Which model and engine?