BMW does not know yet how many cars were affected

The company said the faulty part does not represent a safety risk and the recall only affects pumps made in December and January.

BMW added that it was too early to say how many cars were affected or how much the recall would cost.

The German company is to extend a planned production break at one of its plants due to the faulty Bosch part.

The Dingolfing site will now be closed all next week instead of for just two days.

The additional three-day stoppage will mean a production loss of up to 3,600 vehicles, BMW said, adding that it was confident it could make up the numbers later.

Compensation?

Bosch has stopped production of the part but expects to restart by 2 February.

The faulty component does not represent a safety risk but causes the motor to stall after a significant amount of mileage.

When asked if BMW would be seeking compensation from Bosch, the carmaker's chief executive Helmut Panke said: "we will first solve the problem before talking about who will pay".

Audi and Mercedes Benz were also supplied with the defective diesel fuel-injection pumps but neither of them have to recall any vehicles.

A spokesman for DaimlerChrysler, parent company of Mercedes Benz, said it will however have to halt some production.

It is to close the Mercedes factory in Sindelfingen on Monday and Tuesday.

Audi said it had been hit by production bottlenecks, due to a shortage of unaffected Bosch parts.