Gentlemen,

This is the cheap, ignorant side of me speaking here. I have the P0421 error code popping up on my engine which according to Actron has the following description: "Warm Up Catalyst Efficiency Bank 1 Below Threshold". From what I've read on this forum about this code that means I need to replace my catalytic converter in bank 1. I don't exactly know how to do that. Now I've also looked at the vehicle manual as provided by the sticky in this forum too but I'm not exactly sure I'll be able to do it. I'm not exactly mechanically savvy by any means at all. So here's the ignorant side of me speaking. How important is the catalytic converter? Is this something that's going to kill my car within the next few days or do I have a while before this becomes a real issue? In short, how much pain and suffering am I inviting into my life by not getting this problem fixed immediately? or even within the next week or two?

My understanding is that it is related to the exhaust system. I recently got a smog check and renewed my vehicle registration (before the code popped up). Could this be something that can wait until the next smog check? I don't suppose I'll pass the smog check with this error.

Like I said, this is the ignorant, cheap side of me speaking. I'll more than likely get this fixed before too long but I'm just wondering about the gravity of the situation. Just as an extra little tidbit of information. I drive about 60 miles round trip to work and back every day Monday through Friday. So I do put quite a few miles on my car each week. I imagine this could increase the pucker factor in waiting to get it fixed.