Fork seal washer spacer?

I was helping a friend change fork seals on his 2008 yesterday and when we popped the tubes out of the lowers, discovered a black 5mm (ish) plastic type spacer between the metal washer and the fork seal.
Did some digging and couldn't find any kits that show that spacer.
Anyone seen or heard of it before? Sadly no pics as neither of us had phones down at his shop.

 

NM, figured it out. Previous seals were SKF brand and only 8mm thick. They use a 3mm spacer to make up the gap.
So we gotta pull his forks back apart to remove that plastic type spacer. Everything did seem sort of snug and we should have stopped then.
Learning moment is what we'll call it.