Clutch wouldn't disengage after driving through flood water

[aberry9036]

Morning all! I own a VW GTI Mk5, this morning I took it through a pretty deep flood (the tidemark came within an inch of littering my intercooler with chunks of turbo but thankfully that didn't happen!). I drove through it fine in first gear, slowed down at one point as I was worried water would get in to the air intake but it didn't. When I drove out the other side I went to select second but couldn't, then couldn't select any other gear. I pulled up and switched it off, gears would select without the engine running just not while it was started, so I thought it was likely the clutch though I couldn't figure how. Anyway a few minutes went by and I was about to call out the AA but thought I'd give it another try. Started, managed to get third and limp off, then after another few seconds other gears started freeing up until it went back to normal...

Having done a little bit of reading it seems perhaps I got water in the clutch housing, though given that it didn't slip, it just wouldn't disengage I find it a little spooky. Also I'm worried that it might have been possible for water to seep in to the transmission and I wonder if that would have exhibited these issues, only for it to "drain" and work again? I know if the water had got in to the trans then there'd be lots of horrible mush in there, and I've not checked yet as I just limped it to work, but just wanted some PHers opinions on what might've happened?

[Boosted LS1]

It may be corrosion on the flywheel? I'd be tempted to start the engine in gear and see stalling it releases the clutch.

[aberry9036]

That's the thing, this all happened in the space of 5 minutes in my morning commute, clutch worked as I left home up to the flood, stopped working immediately after the flood, then started working again after a few minutes. I'm sure the water didn't corrode it instantaneously so I'm wondering if water perhaps got stuck behind the pressure plate, or caused a hydrolock somwhere in the clutch mechanism to cause it not to disengage? Mainly I'm wondering if I need to do any maintenance after this incident, as it's now working fine, I'm just worried that I've been lulled in to a false sense of security?

Edited by aberry9036 on Wednesday 11th May 12:01

[E-bmw]

Not sure of the precise shape/layout etc of your bell-housing but my best GUESS would be the bell housing filled with water & took a while to drain out.

No idea if that is feasible, but sounds possible.