Puddle? Drivers side or passenger?
drivers side, just like lars. the stupid hose had slipped out of its hole. it seems all my problems started when i washed the car too, lol.
i can also confirm lars's suspicion that the connector is for the cell phone system. i found it in the repair manual. disconnecting this little bugger fixed what must've been a short in the cell phone's "mute" function that turns the stereo down when a call is incoming. my stereo had been suffering from extremely low volume for about a week! i've determined that this was the case from reading this site here.
Good find. This will save me money to fix myself.