Clutching at Straws

Bill G. sent me a question today for which I have an opinion, but not a “shop-proven” answer. So, I’m posting this in the hopes that someone will have better advice than mine. 
 
Question:  We have a 2002 Dodge RAM Diesel pickup with a manual 6 speed transmission. Recently the clutch failed and had to be replaced. The cost was almost $2000. It seems that 40,000 miles is a little soon to have this kind of problem. Are we just unlucky or have others had the same problem?

My $.02 cents… In my opinion 40k for a clutch to fail seems inordinately premature.  I’ve owned motorcycles with more mileage and no clutch issues – and MC clutches get more abuse than most 4-wheelers.  I did a quick Google on the question and here’s a few comments I dug up:

• How many miles does your clutch last?
• How many miles should a clutch last?
• The Auto Channel – If you got over 100,000 miles on the original clutch, you didn’t do badly. Clutch disk material is very much like the stuff that is used in brake pads and shoes, and it can take a lot of abuse. A clutch disk wears out pretty fast if you “slip” it during upshifts ….. Under normal conditions, a clutch should easily last 100,000 or more – unless a teen-ager is doing most of the driving.

If anyone has better information on this topic, please comment to this post.  Maybe we can figure out a way to help Bill out of this mess.