friend's ridgeline had this piece on the passenger floorwell.

I looked up under the dash and can see the black cylinder that flops back/forth that the gasket end goes in. we cant figure out where the other half goes though.

what exactly does thing thing do and how do we hook it back up properly?

sorry the pic is blurry.

 

It's the glove box damper. Slide it back in the black tube and the other end should snap on a standoff on the right side of the glove box. Or that's how it works on my Ridgeline. My wife's 2006 Pilot does not have the damper.

 

My damper fell out also and had to slide it back in. I wonder if this happens a lot...

 

I wouldn't think so. In my case, it only came out because I forgot to detach the damper from the standoff when I dropped the glove box to replace the cabin air filter.