If the Cap Fits…

If the Cap Fits…

Liqui Moly discusses the issues with using the wrong additive, and suggests its methods for overcoming this problem.


Using the wrong additive is like giving someone the wrong medicine. This is why Liqui Moly has implemented an additional safeguard to ensure motorists always use the right additive. The new pourers for fuel additives prevent petrol additives from going into diesel tanks and diesel additives from going into petrol tanks.

“This provides additional protection from careless errors with expensive consequences,” says David Kaiser, Head of Research and Development with the German oil and additive specialist.

Modern engines are very efficient. The price to pay for this is that they are also very sensitive. Using a diesel additive in a petrol engine or a petrol additive in a diesel engine can have devastating consequences. For its new pourers, Liqui Moly uses a protective mechanism that many car manufacturers now install in their vehicles; a flap on the fuel tank opening that does not open until a pipe of the correct size is inserted.

For this reason, the pourers now have different diameters. The pourer for diesel additives is big enough to open a diesel tank protection flap – but too big for the opening of a petrol tank. In the same way, the flap of a diesel tank stays closed if you try to pour in a petrol additive. “It’s an additional safeguard against mistakenly picking up the wrong additive,” says David Kaiser.

The new pourers work just as well on cars without a protection flap on the fuel tank, of course. Liqui Moly is successfully switching its additive production to the new pourers, so for a while these products will be available with both the old and the new pourers.

As before, Liqui Moly additives also have a colour code to help tell them apart: diesel additives have a red lid, petrol additives have a blue lid, oil additives have a black lid and radiator additives have a white lid.


For more information on the products available from Liqui Moly, click here.

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