Driving through water has rendered my clutch inop
I have an 04 Jetta 1.8T 5 speed manual. The other night I received a call from my mother-in-law asking me to take her a shop vac due to havy rains (5 inches in less than 2 hours). I didn't realize until I drove down my street and turned on to the main street that it was an aproximately foot deep river. Mind you I live in a newly developed sub-division no where near a body of water.
The car started to sputter and the belts were slipping. I turned around after only getting a few blocks and drove right back to my garage and there it sat until this morning. I got in the car this morning and it had the parking brake not been on it would have gone through the front wall of my garage. Although the clutch was depressed it did not engage. Just to let you know, the car only has about 35,000 miles on it and has never slipped or given any indication of any trouble whatsoever. Can anyone tell me if driving through water can burn up a clutch? It never slipped while I was driving in the water.