My cruise control suddenly stopped working one day.  The on-off switch for the cruise control on the L control pod still worked.  The little square CRUISE CONTROL light on the digital dash would come on but not the CRUISE light next to it.  The cruise control would not engage using the steering wheel controls.  

Later that same evening I noticed my rear brake lights were stuck on.  In this pic, the car is empty, no key in the ignition. 

More clues - I found this pile of old brittle broken plastic on the floor of the driver's side compartment.  At first glance I thought these were old pieces of unpopped popcorn, lolam. 

The pieces were old, crumbled, plastic stoppers that were attached to the brake pedal arm.  The stoppers were supposed to block plungers on switches mounted near the brake pedal.  The switches engaged the brake lights and the cruise control. 

To get to these switches, first I removed the driver seat to give my fat a$$ room to lay on the floor and stare under the dash at the brake pedal. 

The lower dash trim piece that goes around the hood release handle has to be removed, which was held in place by three Phillips screws.  There is also one electrical connection to a small interior floor light.  

Then two pieces of ventilation duct work were wiggled free.   There was one common screw that held the ducts in place through two separate brackets.  Both ducts had electrical connectors to temperature sensors.  I think I left one of the ducts still connected and just set it to the side.  

Once the driver seat, lower dash trim piece, and duct work were out of the way, I could lay on my back on the driver's floor, and stare up to see the following view:  

The front of car is toward the bottom of pic.  The two "X's" are on the switches.  The red circle is around a hole in the brake pedal arm where one of the two  plastic stoppers should be.  There is another hole in front of the white switch that cannot be seen from this angle.  Those holes need to be filled or blocked in order for the switches to work properly.

Here is the same view with the brake pedal being mashed out of the way, which shows the two plungers.   The plungers were lined up with holes in the brake pedal arm that were left when the old, crumbled plastic stoppers fell out.

One switch deactivates the cruise control when the brake pedal is depressed.  The other switch turns on the brake lights when the brake pedal is depressed.  I am pretty sure the white switch under the red X is for the brake lights, and the black switch under the yellow X goes to the cruise control, but you may have to test that yourself to be sure.  In this case it did not matter because both switches needed new stoppers.   

These #1 sized corks from Lowe's  worked perfectly to fill the holes that were left when the crumbled, old plastic stoppers fell out. 

The holes in the brake pedal could be filled with any number of objects - a nut and bolt, a penny and epoxy, etc.  The right-sized corks seemed the easiest to install and I liked the idea of the built-in cushioning of the cork.  One reader felt that the cork might not hold up.  Corks can last over a hundred years in a wine bottle, so I felt comfortable trying this material.     

Here is a picture showing one of the corks, installed.  The other cork is hidden from this  view but is also there, working perfectly. 

As always, I will post any follow-up that is necessary in case of premature "cork" failure, lol.