Disclosed is a method for protecting a vehicle clutch, including a check step for checking the mileage of a vehicle and the number of times a clutch wear compensation device is operated; after the check step, a calculation step for calculating a clutch thermal severity level, which indicates the degree of thermal severity of the clutch, based on the mileage and the number of times the wear compensation device is operated; and a control step for controlling at least one of the shifting pattern of the vehicle and engine RPM depending on the clutch thermal severity level, after the calculation step.