[feelin_gray]

Howdy. I've seen on these forums a few posts regarding doing bumper swaps from the 2016-2018 Malibus to a 2019 onward bumper. A lot of the times the answer to if it's even possible is a flat out no, or if it is possible, it would be a waste of time and money.

My Malibu is a 2016 LT, which I did a bumper swap on. It is entirely possible to do the swap on. Read on if you would like details on how it was accomplished.

This swap is entirely possible, despite what some posters have said before (see: Is it possible to swap out the 2017 malibu lt bumper...).

Parts Requirements and Cost​

I sourced all of my parts from eBay. If you don't trust eBay, you can look to sites like GM Parts Direct for the parts. Do note when it comes to the foglights, there are two different versions. One version has LED foglights, and the other is just the lower blinkers that has chrome trim in place of where the LEDs would be.

You will also need supporting hardware. These are all on the old bumper, and my solution was just taking them off my old bumper and putting them on the new one. The post-facelift bumpers geometry where the bumper meets the fenders and the engine bay are the exact same as the pre-facelifts, so you're good on that front.

At minimum you will need the bumper; the lower valance; the upper, lower grilles, the chrome trim and chevy bowtie; and lastly, the headlights and foglights.

If you would like everything to be a perfect fit, you will also need the styrofoam in front of the crash bar (my solution was to shave this down, this will be spoken about later in the post), as well as the update fender liners. The pre-facelift fender liners do work, but only two of the three bolts that mate the bumper are able to be used, the lower most one will not line up at all; and while speaking on bolts lining up (or not lining up, rather), the skid plate bolt holes will not line up at all between the two bumpers, so you will need a new skid plate. In addition to all of this, you will need a headlight wiring harness for the facelift Malibus (I spliced my old connectors, after doing a little investigating into which pins do what. This will also been spoken on later in the post).

I personally went the bare minimum route. The bumper, trim, and grilles I got as a set for $383.05. The lower valance I bought for $201.46. The foglights and headlights I bought for $84.98 and $261.17, respectively. This comes out to a total of $930.66. All prices are in USD.

As for labor, all of the work was done by my friend and I, so there was no labor cost, just time. It took us about 2 hours to install the actual bumper itself.

Wiring the Headlights and Foglights
​

The pinouts between the pre- and the post-facelift Malibus is different. The pre-facelift headlights and foglights use an 8-pin and 3-pin pigtail connector, whereas the post-facelifts use a 5-pin and 4-pin. All of my pinouts as posted in the spoiler below are assuming that you are looking at the connector pigtail facing towards you, with the keyed side up. These are read left to right, top to bottom.

It is much easier to cut the pigtail connectors off of your old and new lights than it is to splice your wiring harness that is in your car. On top of that, if you decide you want to go back to the previous bumper, it will be easier to just splice the connectors back onto your old headlights than splicing the harness. The wiring harness goes into the firewall on the passenger side. If you are afraid of soldering or wish not to, you can just purchase a new harness. I did not opt to go this route.

Spoiler: Pre-facelift Pinout

Headlights:
Marker GND, signal, (no pin), marker light
GND, low beam, high beam, (no pin)

Foglights:
GND, DRL?, fog

Spoiler: Post-facelift Pinout

Headlights:
GND, marker GND, marker light
low beam, high beam, (no pin)

Foglights:
GND, DRL?, fog, signal

Pictures
​

My Malibu before and after swapping

Cautionary Notes
​

Where the bumper mates up to the skid plate beneath the car, the bolts will not line up with any of the clips. I just left it as is because I'm working on a custom skid plate, but I'd suggest investing in a new skid plate.

When you take the old bumper off there is a mounting bracket on either side of the upper part of the bumper that mates to the fenders. These having what look to be some sort of rivets that have been compressed to prevent the mounting bracket from being removed from the old bumper. To take them off, I used a flush cutter to cut them where they are compressed, and pull them off. To mate them to my new bumper I used some super small nuts, bolts, and washers. You can also just order the hardware from a parts provider.

While splicing you will run into the issue of the turn signal being in the headlight pre-lift, but in the foglight post-lift. My solution to this was to just solder a wire going from the headlight pigtail connector down to the foglight. Electrically this works because your GNDs are common between the two sets of light.

The "DRL" designator in the pinouts may not actually be DRL. When testing for what each pin did, I hooked up a ground and a live wire on a power supply set to 13.5VDC, and probed each pin. If you notice that your foglights are extremely dim, then switch the pins marked DRL and fog from the pinout.

DRL functionality will not be retained. I suspect this is just a pinout issue on my behalf. I’m talking a closer look at this, and will update this post as soon as I can. The lights themselves still function when the vehicle is in low light conditions, it’s only the actual daytime running lights.

You may find that, while everything mates up, the plastic may just be ever so slightly off where the sides mate up. You can use a heat gun to heat up and massage the plastic to form better. The molding for the bumper may not be perfect. I also had some problems where some clip cutouts were filled in, but it was obvious that they weren't supposed to be. To fix this, use an xacto knife and carefully cut out those molding errors, where applicable.

You can get pre-painted bumpers, but they will not be paint matched. I personally just got mined unpainted, and I'm going to be wrapping my car soon. Be prepared to get the car resprayed, or at least the bumper and to have it paint matched.

The styrofoam that is in front of the crashbar will either need to be shaved or the new one purchased for the bumper to fit onto the pre-facelift Malibus. My solution was shaved down mine. Please, do NOT just take it off of your car and leave it out. Understand that this is a SAFETY device. It is there to absorb some of the inertia from a front-on collision.

Conclusion
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Contrary to popular belief, it is entirely possible to faceswap your 2016-2018 Malibu to a 2019+ bumper. It isn't hard, it just takes a little bit of time and effort. You should make that determination yourself if you want to. I personally thought it was worth it, and I love the look of my car now.

I will say, you should not do this swap if you are financing your car, and definitely not if it's a leased car. The risk of you doing it to a financed car, while not illegal, is that if ever your car gets repossessed for any reason, then you just wasted all of the time and effort put in.

 

[DrivenDaily]

That's a lot of money to make such a small change overall, while at the same time potentially devaluing the car. but to each their own, I guess.

 

[JTR19]

Parts Requirements and Cost

I sourced all of my parts from eBay. If you don't trust eBay, you can look to sites like GM Parts Direct for the parts.

Here's some valuable advice to anyone reading this.
NEVER purchase parts online from GM Parts Direct!
In the simplest terms, GM Parts Direct is a scam. The reason they come out at the top of any search results for GM parts is because they have paid their way to get top placement. There are a lot of websites where you can buy OE GM parts, and almost all of those sites are run from an actual GM dealership. GM Parts Direct is not a dealership. I have bought many GM parts from different sources over the years, and last year I needed to buy a part that I could really only get from a dealership. I ordered the part from GM Parts Direct because that site came up at the top of search results, and they had a price that was s bit less than some other GM parts sellers. I was sent a part that was broken and could not be used. I submitted a ticket to them and provided ample pictures to show that I was sent a broken part. They never responded to me, and 3 weeks after I had submitted my ticket, they closed it without providing me a refund or providing any response to me. That is how I discovered that GM Parts Direct is not a dealership, and you cannot find any phone number to call them to discuss any problem you might have with an order.
DO NOT order from GM Parts Direct! There are many other legitimate GM dealerships that sell parts online. GM Parts Direct is not one of them!

 

[cp-the-nerd]

Hi @feelin_gray and welcome to the forum! First I want to say this is an excellent how-to write up resource for other members. We now have a place to direct people who have the occasional front-end swap question.

I would like to address some things as they are more or less directed at my advice to previous inquiries about this project. Most questions about this swap hoped the project was plug-and-play, i.e. take off the old front fascia/running lights and the new one fits in its place. That simply isn't true. As you discovered, the swap includes the headlights and many of the pieces do not line up or plug in without--let's be honest here--fairly advanced skills compared to the average joe.

As you shared with us, the parts alone cost in the neighborhood of $1,000 at warehouse prices. If someone were to bring this project to a mechanic, the average labor rate is $180/hr and you're more than likely looking at a day of work.

To my knowledge, the cost and skill required would have been disqualifying for all of the people who have asked thus far. The last thing we want to do on this forum is blindly encourage someone to jump into a project beyond their means. New cars are daunting to modify with many potential downsides, and always hide extra hurdles in the process as you found.

With that said, I love this write up and your will to go the distance on the project. Please do not confuse my (or anyone else's) advice against doing a modification as sheer negativity.

 

[feelin_gray]

Hi @feelin_gray and welcome to the forum! First I want to say this is an excellent how-to write up resource for other members. We now have a place to direct people who have the occasional front-end swap question.

I would like to address some things as they are more or less directed at my advice to previous inquiries about this project. Most questions about this swap hoped the project was plug-and-play, i.e. take off the old front fascia/running lights and the new one fits in its place. That simply isn't true. As you discovered, the swap includes the headlights and many of the pieces do not line up or plug in without--let's be honest here--fairly advanced skills compared to the average joe.

As you shared with us, the parts alone cost in the neighborhood of $1,000 at warehouse prices. If someone were to bring this project to a mechanic, the average labor rate is $180/hr and you're more than likely looking at a day of work.

To my knowledge, the cost and skill required would have been disqualifying for all of the people who have asked thus far. The last thing we want to do on this forum is blindly encourage someone to jump into a project beyond their means. New cars are daunting to modify with many potential downsides, and always hide extra hurdles in the process as you found.

With that said, I love this write up and your will to go the distance on the project. Please do not confuse my (or anyone else's) advice against doing a modification as sheer negativity.

Of course, I wasn't taking it as negativity necessarily. It isn't exactly worth the time for those that aren't willing to put it in, though it is a good project to learn a lot of skills I think. It is also, undeniably, expensive if you take it to someone else. Plug-in-play, neigh. It is at least possible though, and part of me joining was to share the things I learned along the way.

 

[Malibu-Pat]

First, very impressive swap! Question. The 2016 (I assume 2016-2018) used a single bulb for both low and high beam lighting. Are you just using one of the bulbs on the 2019-2023 headlights? Are you getting DIC messaged that a head light or signal bulb is out or needs replacement? For the DRL, is the 2019-2023 LEDs bright while headlights are off and dim when the headlights are on? Thanks for the great post!

 

[feelin_gray]

First, very impressive swap! Question. The 2016 (I assume 2016-2018) used a single bulb for both low and high beam lighting. Are you just using one of the bulbs on the 2019-2023 headlights? Are you getting DIC messaged that a head light or signal bulb is out or needs replacement? For the DRL, is the 2019-2023 LEDs bright while headlights are off and dim when the headlights are on? Thanks for the great post!

No, I actually just bought bulbs for the new headlights, they’re H11 and 9005s, low and high beam respectively.

And no, so there is some wiring difference between the 16-18s and the 19+, such that the DRL functionality isn’t retained. The LEDs work fine, and function when the daylight sensor detects that it’s dark out properly. I didn’t care to look into this particular issue much because the only thing I really cared about was that the lights would function at night. You can just manually turn them on otherwise.

My best guess would be that GND and the power wires are actually flipped, but that wouldn’t be the case because LEDs are diodes and are polarized, so they wouldn’t turn on at all if that were to be the case. Maybe just the actual DRL and GNDs are flipped, but I’m not too worried about it.

 

[jeffk]

Last week I put a parts order in to make this swap on my 2018. I didn't know the day running lights didn't work. Have you figured that out? I'll probably cancel the order if it doesn't work.

 

[feelin_gray]

Last week I put a parts order in to make this swap on my 2018. I didn't know the day running lights didn't work. Have you figured that out? I'll probably cancel the order if it doesn't work.

I haven’t yet, no. Since my last reply, I’ve decided that I will take a closer look, but I can’t this very second because my engine is taken apart for a new headgasket.

As soon as I’m finished with my headgasket though I will take a deeper look. Based solely on DRLs, I’d say cancel and get a refund. Within the next week though I’ll be getting to fixing up DRLs, and I’ll report back. I also added it to the cautionary notes, since I forgot to originally.