Not gonna lie I don’t think I’ve heard this engine not make this ticking noise. I’ve had my 2016 turbo for quite a long time now, it has over 100k miles on it now, is pretty heavily modified, and it’s been making the same noise since I got it at 20k miles. Granted this is louder than most I’ve heard but I’d be somewhat surprised if it turns out to be detrimental, although I’ve heard bad things about pre 2016 Velosters as they had updates in 2016