(March 30, 2011) The shortage of parts at Toyota because of the March 11 earthquake in Japan may affect your next visit to your local dealer.

Toyota announced on Tuesday that it is rationing some repair parts to its dealers in the U.S.

The company has told dealers that "approximately 233 part numbers, out of over 300,000 active part numbers, have been placed on controlled allocation." Toyota asked dealers not to stock up on those parts, but to order only "what is critically needed to support customer emergency" repairs.

The move is being made to prevent dealers for ordering excess inventory out of fears that shortages could develop on critical parts that they use a lot.

Toyota stated that "controlled allocation means orders must be made manually via a special order release form and must be for a specific customer vehicle. By taking this step, we can help conserve parts until the flow from Japan returns to normal."