Crusty and the Cruise Control Conundrum

RAY: Crusty noticed that the red plastic lenses for the brake and taillights were slightly deformed, and what had caused that was excessive heat. His customer's brake-light switch was faulty, and with little or no provocation the switch would get activated or closed, and turned the brake lights on.

And when it did that the cruise control would think the brakes were on … just like it's supposed to, when you step on the brake the cruise control shuts off. So if those brake lights were staying on most of the time because of this faulty switch, that would cause these plastic lenses to soften, and deform. So who's our winner?

TOM: The winner is Mary Middleton of Pueblo, Colorado. And for having her answer selected at random from among the pile of correct answers that we got, Mary's going to get a 26-dollar gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at cartalk.com, with which she can get her very own Car Talk football shirt, perfect for catching pretzel crumbs and absorbing beverage spills while you watch the game. Congratulations Mary!

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]