BEIJING - China's quality watchdog on Monday announced the recall of 181,492 defective cars produced by BMW, Hyundai Motor Group and Dongfeng Yueda Kia.

BMW-Brilliance Automotive Ltd, a joint venture between Brilliance China Automotive and German luxury carmaker BMW, is to recall 75,832 BMW 5 series cars due to problematic socket adapters in their tail lights, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement.

The recall involves 75,744 vehicles produced by BMW-Brilliance between Feb 7, 2007 and Sept 24, 2010, and 88 imported cars made between Feb 22, 2007 and Oct 30, 2009.

In separate statements, the watchdog announced that Hyundai Motor Group and Beijing-Hyundai will recall 64,795 cars to fix faulty brake pedals, while Dongfeng Yueda Kia, a joint venture of Kia with two Chinese companies, will recall 40,865 cars for the same problem.