08 Chevy Aveo tail lights/dash lights not working

[9sam1]

My tail lights and dashboard lights stopped working. Break lights work, and all the other lights work fine, just those two aren't functioning. The mechanic told me I needed to replace my "instrument panel fuse block" and that it would cost me $750. That sounds pretty steep to me. Anyone know how I can maybe go about fixing this myself?


also side note. My car wont shift out of park unless I press the override button, which is annoying. Anyone know if that might be related to this lights issue?

[06T200]

I have no experience with the 08 model, but I don't see how a fuse block can go bad unless it had a nasty short and melted it? Seems more like a bad ground somewhere. Hopefully someone with an 08 can chime in. But yes the two issues are likely related if they share a common circuit, ground or power feed. If you have a digital volt meter I would check all the fuses and trace down to which circuit is bad, or if not, start tracing the ground circuits that ground the dash and tail lights. In a worst case scenario you can run a jumper wire to reroute the circuit around the failure, assuming you find one. If you need help I can try and find the schematics for an 08.