Bad Oil Change - Thrown Rod, Court Date 4/18, please reply.

Hello,

1990 Honda Civic, approx 150K miles. Manual Trans.

On November 15 I got an oil change at Sears Auto Center. I drove approximately 9 blocks and threw a rod. I checked the oil first thing and the stick was dry, nor was there any oil on the ground.

Sears sent (after an hour of waiting on the side of the road) a tech with nothing more than 4 quarts of oil with the hopes that they could add it and my car would start, so it could be driven back to the shop. By this time it was dark and raining. He did not have a flash light. Regardless, he was able to add 4 quarts to the pan. The car would not start anyway (thank goodness).

Finally, they called a tow truck and had my car towed back to the shop where they proceeded to put it on racks and drain out the full 4 quarts of oil that the tech added at the site of breakdown. They checked the seals and plug as well as the filter. My dad says that he heard the techs say that it was weird that the filter was dry?

Sears could not diagnose catastrophic enging failure so they had my car towed to Honda of Seattle.

The next day I get a call from Sears saying that I threw a rod and it was not related to the oil change. I said that I wanted to talk to the contact at honda so I could get the information direct.

When I got the tech at Honda on the phone I quickly realized that he had not been given all of the info. The Honda tech was not aware that no oil was ever an issue and was not told that the car had ever left their lot. As soon as he was made aware of this information he went back to the car and found that the oil filter did not have any oil in it, yet there was 4 quarts of oil in the pan?

They determined that there was most likley never any oil put back in the car.

Sears still denies claim since they could tell that there was recent enginge work done (replacement of a cracked head).

I have filed papers for small claims (court date April 18th) and am trying to find information that states that a thrown rod is caused by lack of, or no oil (I am aware that there can be other reasons too).

looking for a place I can find this info and any comments you might have on the issue.

Let it be known that I was lied to on many occassions (including the Manager of Operations stating that the car would not even start if there was no oil - I know that I am a girl, but am aware that is FALSE)

Thanks kindly!
Andrea