904 giving up the ghost?

Alright I went to remove the filter and the screws were loose! Not loose as in about to fall out but barely much more than finger-tight; took no effort with my screwdriver to take them out. I'm thinking this might be my issue?? The gasket that goes between the filter extension and valve body looks like it wasn't compressed fully around the pickup hole... kinda hard to see in the pic but I think there should be more pronounced ridges around the sealing edges, looks like it was never tightened quite enough.

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