hesitation: possible bad turbo?

[forcfed]

I have a 96 GST with all basic bolt ons and a stock turbo, boosting 15 lbs for awhile now.
Not long ago the car started getting bad hesitation at full throttle only, but if I eased into the throttle the turbo would spool up fine and hold boost until around 5,000 RPM and then drop off like stockies tend to do. Just recently I left work and mashed the gas to hard, got bad hesitation, backed off the gas and stopped at a red light. When I started going again I noticed that my boost guage now goes from VAC to 0 and stays until around 4,500 rpm then the boost slowly begins to build. I can now hear the hesitation coming from the turbo trying to spool up, it sounds like it just does not want to build boost. The car runs fine other than it feeling like a non-turbo. I have checked everything I know of, no white smoke, no oil spill, no cracked or bent fins as far as I can tell, the shaft does feel a little loose though. Is it time for a new turbo?
Any help would be great!!!

Thanks!

 

[theSicKness]

same thing happend to my friends car check the waste gate acuater arm sorry spelling and make sure it didnt slip off from the pin breaking loos if it did just slide it back in and use a cotter pin 2 hold

 

[oldman]

1. Check the actuator arm like mentioned above. While you're there, also check and make sure the wastegate is fully closed with the arm attached.

2. Disconnect the vacuum hose between the actuator and your mbc and test run. You're looking for all out boost so watch your boost gauge and feather the throttle at 15psi. If problem fixed, you have a faulty actuator that opens prematurely. If problem persists, go to step 3.

3. Perform completely boost leak test. If problem persists after you fixed all leaks, you can say with high level of certainty that the turbo is on it's way out.

Good luck.

 

[BlandAnalogy]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179150