does this part usually go bad and if it did would I have no boost?

 

It's not common that it goes bad. I'd start looking at the DV, vacuum lines, and charge pipes.

 

Like BaconBait said, these don't normally go bad but here are the twoproblems with the assembly thatI know about

The set nuts that hold the wastegate flapper in place can come loose on the actuator arm. This will cause a rattling sound to come from the turbo...sounds like a coin in a can. This can be fixed by removing the turbo and resetting the nutsto their proper location.

There was a batch of turbos that had bad actuator arms (I can't remember what year that was). The actuator arms on those turboswere prone to breaking. If this happens you have to buy a new actuator assembly or a new turbo. I don't think anyone sales the actuator assembly anymore...ECS Tuning used to sell them.

 

Im off work today so I cant get it on the lift but I did check any connections on the top-side of the car and found the hose from the airbox to the turbo loose at the airbox end. Seems like it helped a little but im still getting a bird chirp sound from the front passenger side while im driving. from searching and reading it sounds like the DV is bad according to old posts. when i replace my dv and vacuum lines I will check all the lower charge hoses. Hopefully this solves it and everything is all good.

 

Sounds like you are on track, lets us know if that does it for your car.