CEL at cold start

I have a (bad) habot of stepping on the gas when I start the car. In the winter, when I do this it has started giving me a check engine light, which goes out after a while. The codes say vsacuum leak or (once only) catalytic converter fault bank one. I replaced some vacuum lines but it still happened. Other than the light, the car runs & starts fine. Is this something to be concerned about. The catalytivc converter code obviously concerns me, but it only came up once, & wouldnt thw light stay illuminated. The car has 100,000 miles; it has been doing this intermittently for the past 2 winters, never in warm weather. thanks

Break your bad habit. Stop pressing the gas pedal while starting the engine.

What was the exact code? A lot of codes say a lot of things, depending on who’s doing the interpretation.

The check engine light may or may not have anything to do with you and the gas pedal - but you should stop doing it anyway.

There are no codes that tell you that you have a vacuum leak. Nor are there any that can tell you that your cat is bad. Post the actual codes rather than what you or someone else thinks that they mean.

Note: The code you need should be in the format: P1234

Sounds like the heater element on the downstream oxygen sensor on bank one…Solution: Replace the downstream sensors…The LAST thing you want to mess with is the converter…