Just wanted to post my 2p on this for all followers of this thread. The admin team have received a number of complaints from long standing / contributing members about the OP and his use of the forums for promotion only. Whenever there is an issue like this, or a decision one team member feels is too much, we discuss it collectively (and we watch, monitor and discuss a lot). We investigated and even by his own profile page (we check previous postings, complaints, profiles, etc) he says he's just here to promote. Banning without giving an opportunity for OP to defend themselves was deemed a bit harsh so we issued a warning.
Just to add to the above, that we do have members new and old with youtube channels but they actively contribute to posts. This is the main issue here.
As for the 95% knowledge point / other members carrying on while the OP disappears. I personally and can't speak for the other mods come here to relax (and spend about 14 hours a day removing spam, checking posts, replying, etc). To talk about cars. I hope that by promoting a friendly "at the pub with mates discussing cars" attitude we encourage people to join in. And ok, sometimes the OP disappears. But we have loads of new members that are now regular contributors to any and all threads as we welcome anyone to be.
Keeping in mind, we have mechanics who are members, but advice they give is of their own generousity. We also have members who have spent years getting to know particular engines / cars. Members who've spent £1ks on modifications. Anything expressed is purely an opinion and I have my own preferred brands as much as the next person. There is a mountain of knowledge on here and people have thrown hours into doing guides, solving regular problems. I can't fix your car for you and I don't know what that "tatatatata" noise is from a text description. But if I can save you £50 that I wasted, I would. People come here, get
help and
help the next person.
If the OP returns, we/I/one of the team will be happy to discuss things with him.