I always have had a faint tick, occasionally its not there though or maybe i don't notice it. When my car got about 10,000 miles on it it sounded like a total piece of **** when it was cold making knocking sounds. After I got to about 16,000 I said screw it ill beat the hell out of it and if it breaks I'll get a new motor under warranty so I beat on it for a couple minutes and it's never knocked again. Kinda strange... I started driving it a little more aggressively and it seems to be happier.