Nearly four million cars owned by Australians are to be compulsorily recalled due to faulty and at worst deadly airbags.

Volkswagen and Audi will recall about 80,000 cars built between 2009 and 2015 to address a potential transmission flaw.

Dual-clutch transmissions marketed as “DSG” can suffer what VW describes as “an interruption of power” before going into a low-speed limp-home mode.

Once the car stops, the brand says “the car cannot be restarted except after attention by a qualified Volkswagen technician”.

The problem stems from a hydraulic pressure accumulator housing component that was manufactured incorrectly.

VW Golf, Polo, Jetta, Beetle, Passat and Caddy models are affected. Skoda vehicles including the Fabia, Rapid, Octavia, Yeti and Superb are affected.

Volkswagen says about 23,000 cars may be affected by the issue — and that it wants to check a further 40,000 cars to be sure.

Audi will take similar action with 14,000 vehicles.

Volkswagen Australia executive Jason Bradshaw says VW decided to take an “extra step” to keep customers safe.

“While we know that some 23,000 vehicles may have this incorrectly manufactured component, we cannot be certain of identifying these by Vehicle Identification Number alone,” he says.

“We want to physically examine them and those with a potentially faulty component can have it replaced.

“Volkswagen Group Australia could have carried out this part replacement in a service campaign, but we decided that a recall better served the interests of clarity and communications with customers and the media.”

VW says the issue is not related to the 2013 recall to check transmissions in 25,698 vehicles made during 2008-13 that required the replacement of the mechatronics unit, but that “some vehicles involved then might also be affected now”.