In most cases, you can tell that your lifters are bad, in your car engine, by the ticking noise. A bad lifter will make a tapping sound.
it depends on the car
Usually when someone is talking about lifters with cars they are talking about the hydraulic lifters inside the engine that come in contact with the cam and lubricate the push rods that control the valves in each individual cylinder. Sometimes I've heard people mention lifters when talking about the struts used by some folks to raise or lower their car or even to "bounce' the car.
You find a book to the car or go to autozone.com and print the directions....then follow them.
hydraulic lifters.
The lifters are in the cylinder heads.The lifters are in the cylinder heads.
Your car has a cam-shaft that controls the positioning of the cylinder valves. It MAY contact the valves directly, but in most cars they are not close together. To transmit the action of the cams to the valves they might have used rocker arms and lengths of metal. Those lengths of metal are called lifters. An improved version uses a tube filled with oil and are called hydraulic lifters.
Fuel injectors don't tap. You are hearing the hydraulic valve lifters which are full of oil when functioning properly. Without sufficient oil they will make a tapping sound. If the car has sat for along time they will sometimes tap for a few seconds when you first crank it up. If yours valve lifters are tapping intermediately I would suggest checking your oil level and if that is OK you may have an oil pump going bad. If that should be the case do not drive the car as the motor will not get sufficient oil and will burn the bearings and kill the motor.
As you give very little information as to make, model, engine size or year, and exactly when it is ticking, this is just an educated guess. Normally this is valve noise caused by valve clearance issues. If it has solid lifters then they need adjusting. If it has hydraulic lifters, they may be clogged and sticking. If it has hydraulic lifters try adding a can of Seafoam engine tune to a fresh oil filter change. It can be purchased at many auto parts stores. Drive the car for 500 miles and change the oil and filter again. You may have to do this more than once to remove the deposits in the lifters. If this does not work, then the valve stems or lifters are worn, and need adjustment or possible replacement.
It could be hydraulic lifters that have collapsed overnight and need a little oil pressure to get them working properly again. If that's all it is, don't worry.
It is a possibility that the hydraulic suspension has gone bad...It is a problem with that year and is best to have removed.
if your car needs major work done to it don't spend a fortune fixing it but usually you can drive the car "into the ground" meaning until it dies with normal maintance like oil changes and that stuff with the lifters being bad. what you should do when you hear the noise from the lifters starting take your foot off the gas for a minute and then slowly give it more gas.