i am by no means an expert, but from what you describe, this problem sounds alot like what my father experienced on a 7 series BMW a few years back. he replaced the cats, and all the problems were fixed. I can not say for sure that this is your problem, however like i said it sounds like the same problem my father had and the cats were the cause.
maybe if you hear this a few times you might wana take it into consideration, but dont go droping the money on new cats just because of what i say.
good luck