The lights went out in my gauge cluster when driving home last night. Thought that my tail lights shorted out, but this morning when I left I noticed that none of my gauges were working either. Any ideas where to start looking?

 

Check the grounds going to the cluster......AFTER you check the FUSE and connections on the back of the cluster.

 

Did all running lights fail as well or just the gauge cluster lights and gaues themselves?

 

All my running lights are working and the heater control lighting is working. Just my gauges and the gauge lighting are out.

 

As for the lights check the fuse in the main fuse block under the steering column. For the gauges, you might want to pull the gauge cluster and have a close look at the circuit board. There's a chance that some of the "paths" burned up, therefore opening certain circuits. Seems like I've always read that if even one of the gauges either reads weird or doesn't read at all, the majority will agree to check the body ground at the battery. It's just a small wire coming off of the negative terminal and grounds to the core support directly in front of the battery. Checking for good grounds is typically the first step in troubleshooting electrical issues.