On a 1998 ford crown victoria police cruiser, there are 4 rubber insulators which suspend the mufflers from the frame above. On this particular crownvic, 2 out of the 4 hangers had broken, and the other remaining 2 were not far behind in terms of failure.

For this project, aftermarket Bosal 255-047 rubber insulators are going to be used.



These insulators cost around $5.00 each. And 4 of them are required for this project.





The two rubber hangers on the driveshaft side of the exhaust hanger brackets are torn and no longer retain the muffler to the car



Here's a closeup of one of the broken muffler hangers



Here's a muffler hanger that hasn't failed yet, but is rather worn



This rubber insulator has completely failed



The front of the car showing how the catalytic converters attach to the exhaust manifolds



The h-pipe and the rear of the catalytic converters.

Take note of how close the driveshaft is located to the exhaust pipes. If the muffler hangers fail, the driveshaft could grind against the exhaust which would cause lots of odd drivetrain harmonics.



Here's were the h-pipe attaches to the mufflers. As part of this project, two new 2" aftermarket exhaust u-clamps were also installed to replaced the ones that rusted and fell off.



If you're observant, you'll notice that the only things holding the h-pipe up between the exhaust manifolds and the rear axle are the exhaust hangers on the muffler and the exhaust manifolds themselves. If the exhaust hangers fail, a lot of extra load will be placed on the exhaust manifold->engine block studs. The exhaust pipes might also contact other underchassis components that they are not supposed to.





Original equipment ford tailpipe hangers are constructed of plastic with a rubber insulator. Replacement service parts from ford are metal with rubber insulators. But the tailpipe hangers have a minimal load placed on them compared to the muffler hangers, so plastic/rubber tailpipe hanger combination often lasts the life of the car without failure.









On the left is a new aftermarket Bosal 255-047 exhaust insulator. On the right are the 4 old exhaust insulators that were removed from the car.



The new aftermarket exhaust hanger is not quite as thick as the oem ford ones, but it still works good for use in 1995-2002 crownvics.



The new exhaust hanger is a little wider side to side than the old one, but there's lots of open space under the car around the hangers






Here's the engineering part number stamped into the insulator E8VC-5F262-AA



And here's the back of the insulator



Here's an exhaust insulator that's not torn completly through like the one above.





In the past, I had tried using four Walker 35473 exhaust hangers on my 1998 crownvic. But this setup last less than a year before 3 of the exhaust hangers broke in half and the exhaust system started banging around again.



These hangers were the ones recommended in the rol parts catalog for a 1997 crownvic. So I guessed that they'd work good on a 1998 crownvic too since both the original oem ford hangers had E8VC-5F262-AA stamped on them.





The walker exahust hanger was a little shorter vertically than the original oem ford ones, the rubber was much harder, and the hanger was a little narrower too.







Notes:
-Sometimes, you'll find that failed muffler hangers have been replaced with a few wrappings mechanics wire. This can work for a temporary repair, but is not recommended for long term use.
-Some people have also experienced failure of the plastic portion of tailpipe hangers near the rear bumper. If you want to order replacement tailpipe hangers from your local ford dealer, part numbers are avaliable by clicking here. The bracket portion of replacement tailpipe hangers from ford will be metal rather than plastic.
-Driving your crownvic with damaged muffler hangers will place a lot of extra load on the exhaust manifold studs. The exhaust manifold->cylinder head studs are a time consuming task to replace and would cost a significant sum of money to have replaced at a professional repair shop.
-Driving your crownvic with damaged muffler hangers could allow the driveshaft to grind against the exhaust system. This could cause oddball vibration harmonics that seem to come from the rear of the car and might make you think you have rear axle assembly problems when you really don't. In extreme cases, you could also damage expensive drivetrain parts and make your car inoperable.
-The rubber insulators pictured above are not compatible with 2003 and later crown victorias.
-Ford motor company does not sell replacement rubber insulators for the 1998-2002 exhaust hanger assemblies. You've got to purchase a complete exhaust hanger assembly to get the rubber insulators and these are slowly being discontinued. The ones that you'll find still sitting on dealers shelves will have been sitting for years which is not a good thing for rubber parts since they degrade with age even if you do not use them.
-It looks like hanger 8196 from AP Exhaust might also work on a crownvic
-The bosal 255-047 exhaust hanger is officially for imported volkswagen and hyundai cars and does not offically fit a ford crown victoria. After having the last exhaust hangers break, I browsed through exhaust hanger catalogs for hangers that looked similar to the oem ford ones and came across the bosal 255-047. I also came across the bosal 255-275 hanger, but this one is too small for a crownvic.
-Below is a table listing the cars that the bosal 255-047 exhaust hanger officially fits:

HYUNDAI	SONATA	(1999 - 2004)
HYUNDAI	SONATA GL	2005
HYUNDAI	SONATA GLS	(2002 - 2005)
HYUNDAI	SONATA LX	2005
HYUNDAI	XG300	2001
HYUNDAI	XG350	(2002 - 2005)
HYUNDAI	XG350 L	(2002 - 2004)
VOLKSWAGEN	CABRIO	(1995 - 2002)
VOLKSWAGEN	CABRIO HIGHLINE	1997
VOLKSWAGEN	CORRADO SLC	(1992 - 1994)
VOLKSWAGEN	CORRADO V6	(1993 - 1994)
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF	1998
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF GL	(1993 - 1999)
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF GTI	(1993 - 1999)
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF GTI VR6	(1995 - 1998)
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF III CELEBRATION EDITION	1995
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF III CITY	1995
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF III GL	(1993 - 1994)
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF III SPORT	1995
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF JAZZ	1997
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF K2	(1997 - 1998)
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF TDI	(1997 - 1998)
VOLKSWAGEN	GOLF TREK	1997
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA	(1993 - 1998)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA CL	1994
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA GL	(1993 - 1999)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA GLS	(1996 - 1999)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA GLX	(1996 - 1999)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA GT	(1997 - 1998)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA III CELEBRATION EDITION	1995
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA III CITY	1995
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA III GL	(1993 - 1995)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA III GLS	(1993 - 1995)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA III GLX	(1994 - 1995)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA JAZZ	1997
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA K2	1998
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA TDI	(1996 - 1998)
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA TREK	1996
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA TREK II	1997
VOLKSWAGEN	JETTA WOLFSBURG EDITION	1996