Straining the Oil through a very fine sieve at Oil change time would have shown evidence of degradation or not as per this photo of my last Oil change.

 

Lucky escape. The reason why the light comes on is not due to any inherent fault in the engine but the oil pump getting clogged with debris from the belt. The garage that fixed your car will have given it a good clean and that has saved your engine. Regular oil changes wit the correct oil will keep it healthy. Warm the engine up gently and you will get lots of life out of it 

9 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Straining the Oil through a very fine sieve at Oil change time would have shown evidence of degradation or not as per this photo of my last Oil change.

 

Surely between the oil pump strainer and the oil filter you wouldn't expect to see bits in the drained oil? 

24 minutes ago, a7mag3ddon said:

Surely between the oil pump strainer and the oil filter you wouldn't expect to see bits in the drained oil? 

I'm not sure what you mean. 

If there are bits of Belt falling off most of them will still be suspended in the Oil, not stuck to the Strainer or anywhere else.

For that Strainer to be blocked as it was when the Engine was not running there must have been hundreds of other bits suspended in the Oil. 

 

Sorry yes if the engine wasn't running and the bits weren't on the strainer probably see floatys, your hand held strainer was clean

Hi all. Just wanted to update alls been well since it was done. I’ve done just over 5k since however and wondering when’s best to get a fresh oil change?

 

driving is really a mix. Village school runs plus a handful of 15-20 mile trips each week

I do mine when the oil life meter gets down to 30% or at least start thinking about it. I've just received the major service kit from ford as mines coming up to 45K miles now so will be doing plugs, oil, filter, cabin, sump bung. 

Some people say every 5-6K miles but for me that would be silly if a car needed changing that often.

I would consider a precautionary oil change at your current mileage. The work done will still have left a bit of contaminant.