here's a little update.

CEL has not reappeared after it was cleared on the 2nd. i only put about 60miles on it though. car still idles and drives perfectly fine. the dealership is taking a look today. i've been doing a lot of research on here over the past couple of days and came across the cylinder 4 scoring thread, and am wondering about that. there has been a ticking noise but i just thought it was normal valve chatter. maybe this would explain why the car idles fine, which (from what i've gathered here) wouldn't be the case with bent valves in 2 cylinders.

we'll see.......