re: Catalytic converter question…

Jack the vehicle up and place on jack stands.

Crank the vehicle and let it run for about 10 minutes to warm up completely. After warming up, get under the vehicle with it still running and with infrared thermometer ,(you can get them cheap at HF) point the laser about two inches before the cat on the exhaust pipe. Jot down the temp.

Then put it about 2 inches past the cat on the exhaust pipe and record the temp there. It should be about 100 to 110 degrees hotter than the inlet temp before the cat if it is working correctly.

It is highly unlikely the cat is bad unless it has been smashed by driving over something. Generally what causes a cat to go out is either physical damage or an engine issue such as running to too rich, lots of blow by, etc, thus clogging the cat.

I would purchase a cheap ODB2 scanner if I were you and see if the codes come up mentioning sensors, odds are the O2 sensors either before or after the cat need replacing.