I had to learn the lesson on how to care for my car...
But I never made my oil so solid that I couldn't drain it! That's really weird to me, but I don't know a lot about cars... I know I went a lot more thousand miles than you did between my first few oil changes. :/
I come from a family where nobody ever cared for their cars properly. Most of the stuff I know I learned from the internets because of my Caliber, which had 3456578765 problems. Actually, I let my Caliber go 40k+ miles and it didn't have a bit of sludge...but it was also full synthetic (I didn't let it go that long again!).
I have NO history on this car, other than it has a ton of problems and I've had it for nearly a year. I know the oil was changed no more than 5000 miles ago with semi-synthetic, possibly less (I don't drive it much...because it has problems...mostly just to and from work). I do know the oil was disgusting last time because I did it myself. It didn't even look like oil. I have no idea how long it wasn't changed before that. I think there were definitely leftovers from the last time that made this one worse.
FWIW, I put the oil treatment stuff in it a bit ago, and...it sounds AMAZING. As in...I can't hear it, really, I actually questioned whether my car had actually started. And this has always been a noisy car. It's also always had a 3rd cylinder misfire, and...it's still there, but MUCH improved (changing spark plugs, plug wires, and ignition coils made no difference). Except now my cooling system is making noise, which would worry me if I hadn't heard the exact same noise last time I opened the pressure release latch on my radiator cap. I think I need a new radiator cap again, since pressing down on it quiets it >.< (at least those are dirt cheap!). And I'm now 99% sure I know where my cooling system is leaking from...the bloody overflow reservoir! This is after replacing the radiator (which was in fact leaking), radiator cap (also leaking), hoses (one burst), etc.
At least I now have PURPLE duct tape keeping my windows up, instead of gray! :rofl1: