To make a long story short l took my car to a Jiffy Lube and 5 miles later l am stalled out. The Saab 9-3 had 55,000 miles on it and no signs of trouble. l end up having it towed to the closest other Jiffy Lube for them to look at what happened. They have my car for a couple hours and have no idea. So l take it to two mechanics, the second being a Saab dealer.

Apparently the engine is destroyed. There is no compression, all pistons and cylinders are messed up, and the timing is off. Both mechanics feel that there must have been no oil in the car and the second Jiffy Lube filled it to cover the tracks. Nothing else seems likely to them as they have never seen an engine failure like this unless the car is run without oil.

So l ask, where can l have the mechanic look in the engine that will be a tell-tale sign that the car was run without any oil? I am just getting started out of college and this could be a major setback for me... unless l am able to prove the Jiffy Lube was at fault.
Thanks for your ...

In response to the noise, lights, etc. that should have been going on. There was very little unusual noise coming from the engine. l did notice something though and had to turn the radio off to hear it b/c it was so faint. The noise was more of a fluttering of the engine... no knocking... just the engine was fading in and out while accelerating. When hearing that l immediately pulled over and called Jiffy Lube. Right then, the car died on me.

Being that the timing belt is thrown off, is it possible that the car WAS oiled and when the timing belt went off, it threw the other elements of the engine out of line? If so, could it be the result of Jiffy Lube (l can not think of any explanation how)?
Also, being that l did not hear any loud knocking or grinding from the engine, at the time l felt that this was not an oil issue. It has been the now 3 mechanics I've spoken to that have made me believe this was the result of no oil.

First, if there was no oil, or insufficient oil in the engine u should have noticed that ur engine was noisey when u left Jiffy Lube. Two, u should have noticed that the oil light was on, or if it has a guage it would have read 0 or low. Removing the oil pan & inspecting the bearings will show a lot of scoring & maybe a spun bearing or two. Finally, if there was no oil put in it & the oil filter was changed, the oil filter will be empty or have very little oil in it. If the oil filter was not changed then it would have only old oil in it. In any case it may be difficult to prove.
It was a mistake to go back to Jiffy after it stopped. It should have been towed to a different garage or the dealer. You may have to take legal action with Jiffy. If u have comprehensive coverage on ur car, contact ur insurance company for direction.

Any engine run with out oil will have the white metal (babbet) off the bearings transferred to the crank & if run long enough the crank will get so hot it will permanently change color. Little pieces of the bearing will show up in the oil filter if u cut it open & wash it in solvents.

If continued to run after the knocking starts, then the cylinder walls will lose their oil & begin to melt the pistons. After the pistons melt, she is done.

There really is no excuse for running an engine making this much noise & smoke with so many lights on or oil gauge on zero. So no mater what happens, there is a chance u may share the burden of the repair.

Here is the good news- u will need to prove that the car ran 5 miles then quit. Your original jiffy lube will have put the mileage on ur receipt, the tow truck which took it to the next jiffy lube will have ur cars mileage on the receipt, the shops u took it to will also have the mileage. So sit down & write out a time line & a mileage u can prove & send it to Jiffy lube & tell them this is what is going to court with you.

No oil could seize the cam shaft before the pistons & cause the belt to break.