said by Anonymous_:I was behind a bus that was pouring out a lot of smoke, when the CEL came on.
You were behind a smoking bus *twice* to make it come on? You said you already had the code cleared once. And, that's a virtually impossible scenario to cause that code anyway.
What sensor do you plan on replacing on a blind guess? Upstream or downstream? I really don't understand why people want to come up with every reason under the sun why this code sets. There is a converter failure code so you want to replace the oxygen sensor. If a code sets for an cylinder #4 misfire, are you going to replace a headlamp?
I'm being straight here--- BOTH related-bank oxygen sensors MUST BE operating properly for this failure code to occur. The computer is measuring exhaust oxygen content BOTH before AND after the catalyst to determine its efficiency. A malfunctioning O2 sensor strictly prevents this diagnostic cycle from running, and will set a SENSOR failure code, NOT a catalyst code. There are no "false positives" here.
I will add that the best course of repair is proper diagnosis. Get the system tested, preferably by a shop that can scope the components to get the correct picture. Like I said, very high percentage its the converter. Oxygen sensor failure is very rare.