Ah, Andy, all that lovely plastic! The modern car owners nightmare. Thank goodness for our largely all-metal 260 engines! Proper timing chains and all....

It is interesting, though, how some of these VIS units last forever while others wear rapidly. I (and the previous owner) went through three on my ZT180 in less than 100,000 miles. One recommended approach to minimising wear is to ensure you have an oil trap on the breather line. Yours certainly looks very oily and I'm told that the oil and other impurities mix themselves into a lovely grinding paste which speeds up the wear processes. I did put one of these on the 180, but ended up takling it off when it didn't seem to be trapping any oil. I'm about to put it on the 1275 engine in the MG1100 which definitely swallows lots of oil!