Thanks to all those who've described and added fix-its for the ticking noise in the engine bay of some 380's. The canister purge valve that was described in the replies was the problem in my case. A new replacement is $132 ex Mitsubishi, but a drop and only a drop of WD40 in both ends has fixed the problem for the present. Can't say if this is a permanent fix as it's only been a few days since I've done it. For those of you who want to replace the purge valve the Mitsubishi part number is MN180333 and are still available. There is the same valve used in Protons according to Bosch, who make them, the part number is PW810469. I hope others have similar success.

interesting, i found i get ticking on idle for a few secs only after a solid flogging of it and then goes back to normal, been like that since day 1 of me owning the car, never really been an issue....

wd40 idk, mabey nulon throttle body cleaner may be better and safer, i used it on my pcv valve and came out brand spanking clean