FRANKFURT—German car makers Volkswagen AG and BMW AG said Monday they are recalling more than 500,000 vehicles due to possible technical problems.

A spokesman for Volkswagen, Europe's largest auto maker by sales, said the company began a recall of 299,000 cars with diesel engines in October last year due to possible problems caused by cracks in the fuel-injection system, reported The Wall Street Journal.

VW has notified the car owners but didn't say how many vehicles had been recalled so far.

The cracks can occur in VW's Golf, Passat, Jetta, Tiguan and other models built since 2009. The company's Audi, Skoda and Seat brands are also affected, according to the VW spokesman.

BMW also said it is recalling 235,000 cars of its Mini brand world-wide due to a possible malfunction of an electric water pump that cools the turbo charger.

A spokesman for the world's largest luxury-car maker said there haven't been any reported accidents related to the possible malfunction.

The comments follow a filing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration saying that BMW will recall 88,911 Mini and Mini Cooper cars in the U.S.

According to the NHTSA filing, the auxiliary water pump that cools the turbo charger has an electronic circuit board that can malfunction and overheat. As a result, the circuit board may smolder and possibly catch fire.

BMW will notify the car owners and dealers will replace the water pump free of charge. The recall is expected to start next month.