Hi

After scrutinising the manuals, I realised that in the filter mounting (paper element type) there is a spacer to compress the filter to the bottom of the bowl. This means that my filter hasn't been filtering at 100% for the last 50K or so! The filter was probably just sitting there floating in the oil. I made a temporary spacer with some rubber hose and managed to get some compression on the top of the filter and also the base.

Did I do the correct thing? What untold damage has been done?

Oreo
123 with 115 engine