I have a 1987 2.6L Dodge Raider with a throwout bearing that is starting to whine. Trouble is, the clutch was rebuilt with a new friction plate, throwout bearing, and cover 10,000 miles ago. This was all done at the local Mitsubishi dealerships service shop, actually the same dealership the truck was bought from new in 1987. There is only 52K on the truck, and it has been babied its entire life.

Questions:

I've been told that if you take the clutch apart to replace the bearing, you should replace the friction plate as well. Do I need to do this with only 10k on the friction plate?

I'm short on cash right now, so I don't want to spend 1k on a clutch rebuild to replace a $50 part.

The bearing is only whining 50% of the time right now, how long can I drive on it without damaging something else?

And what could have caused this bearing to fail so soon after being replaced? Should I expect any sort of break on fixing it if I take it back to the dealership?

Picture of the truck.