The funny plastic piece I have no clue about

Hi there, I’m gonna be short and sweet: had some issues with my 2001 s type like tie rod end dead, coolant tank leaking at the tube, full rear suspension rubber rot. Fixed mostly everything, used grease needle to grease up the lower ball joint, water started escaping from a tiny pin hole on it under pressure, will seal with black silicone tomorrow. And as always, some funny business: hood latch got stuck on passenger’s side. I new this may happen, this check the cable before, it was great condition, still broke. Ended up removing most of the plastic from the underneath just to catch the cable with wire through the grill lol. Don’t have the cable on me, so just removed the passenger hood latch. Question: is it ok to drive with only driver’s hood latch+hood catch? And while working under the car I saw a little plastic piece on the ground, not sure it’s from the car, if it is, what is it? Pics attached. Also, here is some more info/question from previous post on general:

2001 s type 3.0. Bought in the beginning of November 2021 at 114k kms, already 121k kms. Changed right tie rod end (was squeaking like crazy, boot was ripped). Back suspension rubber mostly ripped, silicone lube did fix the noises. Overall great condition with minor rust, which is not unusual in Atlantic part of Canada. Transmission shifts slow when car is cold started at like -5 C and run for 2-3 min (not warm enough yet); but does shift with small kicks when warm. Engine whines but probably a fan/serpentine belt thing, and when cold started after 30sec of idle car shakes for 15-20 sec and stops. Question is: how many kms should I expect from it before any major issues (transmission/engine/etc), if used as a daily driver? I warm up car for 2-3min typically, rarely floor it, plan to change fully synthetic oil and filter every 10k kms

 

That white thing looks like one of the adjuster "cogs" "for the headlamp adjustment.

It would be normally be at the back of the headlamp directly below the white adjustment "nut"

 

Thanks for your short and sweet post! 😀
Some questions you ask are hard to answer but I can tell you that the little cogged plastic wheel is from the headlight adjustment system that sits at the rear of the light housing. You should have one visible on the other side to see where it goes.
I’ll let others chime in to try answer your other more challenging questions. Good luck eh!

 

Replace the bonnet release cables together, which requires removal of the cooling system expansion tank to allow the primary cable to be routed through the body. It's not a good idea to drive with one of the bonnet latches removed as the bonnet is aluminium and can become distorted.

There are several common failure points on the early X200 fitted with the 3.0 litre Duratec engine:

• Breather elbow under the lower inlet manifold splits causing engine to run lean and misfire
• Upper inlet manifold IMT o-rings fail causing lean condition and oil seepage
• Cam cover and spark plug boss seals fail causing oil to enter spark plug wells resulting in misfires