it was the thermostat housing
but someones threaded or striped the heads from all the screws that go into the airbox and stuff, so none of them wanted to come out

eventually he's had to remove the air con pump to get to it

just waiting for the parts to arrive and it should be fixed

a blessing in disguise that the wife didn't have the car these past few days, i think it may have had a few more dents in it than before