P0117 – Overheated – Normal Temp Gauge

[Jim Saling]

I have a 2003 Camry XLE 4cyl with 223,000 miles. It was in need of a new valve cover gasket and has been “consuming” coolant over the past week. Today, on the way home, the CEL came on and I checked the codes with the bluetooth reader that was already connected. I saw a P0117. I cleared it and it came back immediately. At almost the same time, I started losing power and smoke began billowing from under the hood. I checked the temp gauge and it was normal (in the center of the range, actually). The coolant reservoir still had coolant in it.

My questions are: what do you think needs to be replaced? What are the chances that it will run again? What happened?

I assume it will need a new engine coolant temp sensor but would that cause the car to overheat or just not tell me that the car was overheating? I definitely will need a new valve cover gasket now.

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