VW question Options

[TSiwrx]

i dunno if any of you can help with this, but my moms car has a problem.(imagine that) (stupid german engineers). so yesterday she, like many of us, got stuck in the downpour in her 5 spd, '02 VW passat 1.8t. she claims that everything was fine till she was about five minutes from home, when the speedo quit working, cruise quit, and CEL came on. my electrician father attributed this to some sensors getting wet and let the car sit and dry out for 24 hrs. he also disconnected the battery to clear the CEL and checked the fuses. now, the car runs fine, boosts fine, everything is fine, no CEL, but the speedo and cruise will not work.

my mom has had this car torn completely apart before having problems caused by the abs system. one wrong aspect tire caused us over $20 grand in shop time and pretty much everything was taken apart and put back together. im wondering if this could be another abs problem.

i am wondering how the car measures speed, is it measured by a sensor or somthing that could've gotten wet and shorted out? he thought that maybe the sensor for the ABS and the speed were the same one, because the speedo quit workin once before when it had all the other problems.

if any of you have any info or insight on this please let me know. this car has been nothing but problems to my parents and id hate to see them have to have it in the shop for any amount of time more than it already has. thanks