The clicking noise coming from your wheels/tires (sounding like ABS checking) is most likely sand or dirt in one of your wheel bearings. I've replaced three wheel bearings now because living out here in New Mexico gets all that crappy "sand dust" into EVERYTHING and wheel bearings are no exception.<img src=/images/forums/snitz/mad.gif width=16 height=16 border=0> Bytches are expensive too, I think I paid $80 for the bearing from St. Charles Auto and then ended up giving another $50 and a case of Bud Ice to Dan the Man (my friendly Hyundai tech at the dealership) because it's such a pain to install. He turned my rotors for me too though, so I got a good deal <img src=/images/forums/snitz/wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0>
Bad bearings usually tick kinda like a bicycle wheel or something; you can REALLY hear it if you're driving along a retaining wall on a highway or something and have the windows rolled down.
As for all the misc ticking under the hood, there are several possibilities...
First is the HLA's that were described earlier. These are the ONLY component that you could consider a "lifter" in the BETA engines. There are no rollers or lifters really, the valvetrain is essentially a "direct activation" setup. The cam lobe presses against the HLA, and the HLA sits right on top of the valve stem. These HLA's tick loudly when they're cold, when oil pressure is low, or when they're gummed up full of oil varnish.
The other possibility is your fuel injectors ticking. They will get louder when they're cold, they will also tick VERY loud if they're dirty or stuck open. I've actually had an injector stick open on me and it sounded almost like a busted HLA because it was so loud. The fix was to take it down the street at about 8,000,000 RPM's <img src=/images/forums/snitz/smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0> (not really that fast, but..) and when I came back it shut up. You can tell you have a stuck injector by watching fuel puddle underneath your exhaust tip while idling<img src=/images/forums/snitz/eek.gif width=15 height=15 border=0>
That should cover most of the ticking you hear. If you notice the ticking isn't coming from the TOP of the engine, then you have bigger problems and you likely should stop running the motor.<img src=/images/forums/snitz/tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0>
-Red-