RAY: What was wrong? What he noticed was the clock was flashing.

The clock was flashing because the flow of current from the battery to everything in the car had been interrupted by a loose and corroded connection.

By repeatedly trying to start the car, he eventually got lucky and enough current managed to jump through the corrosion to start it. Even though the car started, the clock didn't reset. So, he saw the flashing clock and he got home.

He took out his little wrench, removed the battery cable, cleaned it up a little bit, put it back on and everything was fine. Pretty nifty, huh?

TOM: Wow, that's quite good.

RAY: That's why I used it. You don't think I steal lousy puzzlers on purpose do you? Who's our winner?

TOM: This week it's Brian Zapf. Zapf, I love it. It's so complicated. Brian is from Ovid, New York.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]