lime scale

we did a woolen wash @ 40degrees, in our “AEG OKO_Lavamat 74620 update” (it’s about 7 years old), this morning and when the cycle finished we found a load of flecks of lime scale in the washing.

we put it back in at a normal wash (not woolen) @ 40degrees and that cleaned it with no lime.

i’m wondering if this is a co-incedence but recently (the last month) the drain pipe has started it over flow. basically the drain pipe feeds into the cupboard into a vertical pipe (plastic) that goes down into a U-bend and off to the drain. I’ve managed to fix most of it using caustic soda a few times to clear the drain, but i’m still seeing some suds build up around the top of the vertical pipe when the machine is going through a cycle.

Is there anythign i can do about this? or is my machine on its way out?