My son has a mint 1996 Jetta III GLS with 65,000 miles, 2.0L, 5-speed.

It appears the clutch is wearing out, but that sounds premature at this mileage. Can the self-adjusting cable assembly begin to wear/fail and make it behave like a worn clutch?

Also, several months ago we had a torrential downpour that lasted about 30 minutes just as he was getting out of school. The car started but then stalled and upon restart was sputtering very badly. This car always ran like a Swiss watch prior to this rain. After a while it ran okay, but now the check engine light keeps coming on and the code is mis-fire in #1 cylinder. We had it in the shop and they couldn't find anything. They reset the light and it came back on 10 minutes after we picked it up.

Would new plugs and wires fix this, or could it be more than that?

Thanks for any help.