The narrow hose is cracked and breaking off.
it goes from a pointy tube off possibly the air intake and continues into the cabin wall. My mechanic thinks it may be too hard to replace the whole hose.
see attached photo

 

That vacuum line powers the defrost, floor and re-circulation vents. Default with broken vacuum line is floor vents on. It uses vacuum to turn on defrost and recirc. vents.

Easy to replace. 5 minutes working slowly. (can of silicone lube help the hose slide through the grommet in the firewall)

 

To follow the hose in the interior remove the felt panel under the glove box and the right side center console panel. You will be able to see that this hose runs to a vacuum reservoir within the center console. Should be pretty easy to replace as Hoonk says.

 

Thanks so much to you and to act1292 for your very helpful and quick replies! Now I am sure we can do this repair right, not just cut off a few inches and attach another tube like my mechanic had suggested because he thought he’d have to remove the whole dashboard or something like that.

Do you happen know, does this hose have an inside diameter of 6.6 mm ?

 

Just take a sample to your auto parts store (it's broken anyway!) - buy 5 or 6 feet and replace what's there. And no - thinking about it the inside diameter is MUCH smaller than 6.6 mm. The outside diameter is not even 6 mm!

 

Good advice—I will take it to the store.