MSSQL Server 2012 (not R2) maxing out CPU (98-100%) with svchost (wuaueng.dll)

Spent a fair bit of yesterday trying to find a solution for this, but this issue appears to only affect Server 2008...well, I beg to differ!

MSSQL, hosted on Server 2012. Updated via WSUS. Enabled the GPO's for production updates on Friday - over the weekend and into yesterday watched the box spike to 100% CPU, pinned it down to svchost and the wuaueng.dll. Stopping the Windows Update Service helps, temporarily. Disabling the service (for the time being) is what's stopping this box from falling over entirely.

Google has been of little help (or my search terms are awful) - I've removed the Software Distribution folder, I've checked the version of the Windows Update client (7.8.9200.17185) and I've removed the reg keys/removed it in WSUS in the hope that would refresh it's cache. Nothing is work and the server is still hitting max CPU as soon as it tries to scan for updates.

EDIT - after trying all of that again, all at the same time (because that's how I roll), now getting an error code at least (80244010) which (according to MS) is: "0x80244010 WU_E_PT_EXCEEDED_MAX_SERVER_TRIPS The number of round trips to the server exceeded the maximum limit."

When running again (which is what's suggested) we get a different code: "0x8024401C WU_E_PT_HTTP_STATUS_REQUEST_TIMEOUT Same as HTTP status 408 - the server timed out waiting for the request."

Know the server can definitely speak with the WSUS server (ping and telnet show no issues) so I'm still stumped.

Any assistance is appreciated.