Did you fill it with fresh gas?
Yes. I saw the orange dot come on and I added gas.
One added thing…you may not need a new catalytic converter. It could just be the O2 sensor. O2 sensor could be faulty and sending a false code. Any mechanic who just does a scan and automatically says you need a new Catalytic converter without running any more tests is running a scam. Find a new mechanic.
tires and battery are wear items. you didnt fix anything. you got new stuff. you said injector? not injectors? i believe you have 4 injectors and replacing them all is usually only required if you have a severely contaminated fuel system. you car was sittting. so maybe that was not required.
That is the PCV system breather hose. With that disconnected from the air intake hose air will leak in and bypass the air flow meter. Un-metered air entering will cause driveability problems and fault codes.
It is unlikely that the catalytic converter is damaged or clogged. Erase the fault and drive the vehicle to see if the fault returns.
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I didn’t get them replaced. I got them cleaned.
But unless I’m mistaken, it would cause a vacuum leak which can make the engine run poorly and also throw the code in question. That’d explain the symptoms OP has, and strongly suggests that the shop’s diagnosis of a bad cat is wrong.
I took my car to another mechanic to get a second opinion. I paid $130 for a full diagnostic and they said my catalytic converter is fine… there were a few small things but the biggest thing is the cat needs a cleaning and I can do that myself for $30… but right after I bought the cataclean, my starter died lol. They had to come help me and it costs $450 to get the starter replaced.
Repeat after me…
Coincidence
You have a 17 year old vehicle–with an unknown maintenance history–that could have been abused by an unknown number of previous owners.
If the catalytic converter if fine then why do you need to clean it ?
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They said it was dirty…
Not sure if they restarted the code but after they replaced the starter, the CEL went off.
When you replace the starter the battery is disconnected. This will turn the Check Engine light off temporarily. But drive the vehicle long enough and the Check Engine light will turn back on with the same code(s).
Tester
Okay, makes sense. From the diagnostic, they said the valve cover gasket is leaking, piston rings are worn, left engine mount is broken… but they only recommended a cc cleaning and to check my oil once a month to make sure it’s not empty because the worn piston rings will burn up more oil. Is the valve cover gasket leak an issue? I’m surprised he didn’t tell me to get it fixed…
Valve cover leak = not a big deal.
Engine mount is broken = priority 1.
Catalytic converter needs cleaned = no such thing, in my opinion.
Piston rings are worn = based on a compression test? Or what? If they are indeed worn = fix the motor mount and check the oil often. Drive it until it dies. 
If piston rings are indeed worn and oil is getting excessively consumed, adding some inexpensive additive like “Restore” with every oil change can extended the agony a little bit by reducing blowby and oil consumption.
I’m so confused… why didn’t he tell me to get the mount fixed???
If the worn ring diagnosis is correct then i agree; quit spending money on it and drive it until it goes belly up.
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If the mount is BROKEN, that would be priority 1 for me. It’s sort of a structural component and you don’t want the engine bouncing around and torquing against the other mount. If it’s just WORN, it’s not as big of an issue.
Disconnecting the pcv hose could has a vacuum leak, which might make the engine misfire. Enough driving with misfires will definitely damage the cat. But if you only ran the engine a little while with the misfire problem happening, seems unlikely that would damage the cat. If the air filter install was preventing air flow into the engine, the symptom would be similar to a clogged cat. Suggest to get the air filter and pcv hose problem fixed, clear the codes, and see if that makes the car run as before, with no check engine light. If the check engine light returns and there’s a p0420, either there’s some other problem, or the cat was already about to fail prior to your air filter install problem.
I only felt one misfire… I took it on the highway after that and I think that’s when my engine mount broke because it wasn’t vibrating during idling before… but honestly, I can’t tell if it’s that or the cc…
Really not sure what to do now… one mechanic says cc has an issue and I could be stranded on the side of the road if I keep driving it… another mechanic said it just needs a cleaning… but this is also someone who didn’t tell me to get a broken mount fixed… so even if I get it fixed and the cc is crapped out, it wouldn’t make a difference…