I'm sorry to jump in on your thread, but I also have a ticking noise near the left and right firewalls when it is running. I purchased the car with 16,000 miles back in october and now have 18,000 miles on it. The ticking has been there since I purchased it and I just assumed it was normal. I thougth it might be an emission control vavle ticking at idle like on my previous cars. Can someone please chime in if the tick tick tick tick sound I hear is normal. You are talking about a steady tick tick tick sound at idle right and not a random clicking like in this video? See below.
I really hope this is not against rules posting another users youtube link. I appologize if it is, but wanted to help out the OP.