I adjusted the lifters preloading and now I have a sharp ticking sound coming from cylinder 1 valves. The noise come when I start up the car and goes away quickly to almost normal valves noise.

The car is 1.4 v8 fabia.

P.S. I took out the splash plate to adjust the preloading for cylinder 1 valves.

Could be the tappets. They used to be very noisy on old VAG cars, if they are hydraulic they quieten down when the oil gets moving.

I have a 2007 vauxhall corsa with a sharp ticking noise at work now. Was diagnosed as the timing chain over the phone (anyone with a corsa will know the rattle they give!)

got it in the garage and as i revved it the noise got louder rather than going away like a noisey chain does. I toom the rocker cover off and tried to move the rockers and hydaulic lifters, one of them was loose and had no oil preasure at all meaning it had failed.

It fits your symptoms so could be the problem

i bet the corsa is at about 55-60k miles?

Pftt the poor girl that owns it isnt that lucky, its on 22,000! Very low miles for that kind of fault.

60k - 70k miles is common for timing chains on them though.

Thanks guys .... I checked it out ... It is the exhaust valve for cylinder 1 which has a bit of play