boost leek

 

heres somthing to look into even if its not the prob look into hard line IC pipes n a new bov cause the stock 2g SUCKS, a greddy type s or typr RS are my too chioces

 

id say boost leak. check all your hoses first. if you wana check the turbo, pull the snorkel hose off of it and grab the turbine blade in the center, and see if you can move it in and out. if you can your turbo is going, but like it has been said, it should not really affect drivability until you hear a whine.

by the way, you cannot go off of your little +/- boost gauge on the dash that is garbage. buy a boost gauge

 

I'd say not to go off that guage too but the fact that he says that performance is hampered kinda says it's more than a faulty gauge.

 

i think its a boost leak or vac leak for sure too but DSMTalonAWD51 is right the fac boost guage is junk unless your fond of sitting there watching the -/+ its pointless , the reason i dont think its his turbo is he would hear it. you can amke a simple home made boost leak tester give me a sec to find the link to it

 

here ya go its easy to build n its better to have some idea than nothing at all

http://www.vfaq.com/mods/ICtester.html

 

I actually had that with my old T25.. After a friend took it off there was a bunch of teeth in the turbo that had been eatin up by something that got in there...

 

the death whine you will know when you hear it right away that the turbo is bad. it is kinda funny to hear. My buddies 14b went bad while he was on it hard it spooled normal and all of a sudden just went and then came a large cloud of black smoke we thought the motor went out with it but when we pulled it the block was in great shape and the turbo was TRASHED

 

You bros are great. Thanks for all the input. I read lots of suggestions that all made sense, and thanks for the customized check for leaks I'll look at it this weekend. The turbo is fine, it spools just fine, it's just that the crappy needle on the dash does not go all the way up all the time, and even if it does and I hear the turbo spooling just fine, it just does not have the usual power. As someone mentioned, the boost builds up, but it feels like you running at half of what it should be. It's gotta be a leak. I'll keep you posted