Hello Scotty,

I have a Yaris that I bought used with around 66,000 km on it. By the time it reached about 90,000 km, I noticed the oil light coming on earlier and earlier. I took the car to the dealership, and they would tell me it was just low oil, charging me around 2,500 NOK each time. Initially, when I bought the car, I would change the oil once a year or every 15,000 km as recommended by the dealership. Since I don't drive more than 12,000-13,000 km a year, that worked out well.

However, as the years went by, the oil light would come on sooner and sooner. At its worst, I had to fill up the oil every 1,500-2,000 km. Finally, the engine died at 156,000 km, leaving me very frustrated. Also, whatever little power the car had seemed to dwindle over time. I didn’t know much about cars and engines, and since insurance companies require documentation of oil change intervals by a certified shop, I missed the opportunity to learn basic maintenance myself. Long story short, my engine died.

The car was delivered to the dealership at the insurance company's request. It was declared a write-off. I thought about just buying a new engine, which could possibly cost more than $5,000, plus another $1,000-$2,000 for the job. However, the dealership offered me an engine swap for $16,700. So now, I've gone from watching your videos and others for entertainment to actually learning a bit about cars.

But I still can’t tell a duck from a chicken, so please help me out.

Here is the information about my car.

I found a barely used 1NZ-FXE engine with 30,000 km for $1,000, and I got very excited. However, I'm unsure if it would fit in my car. I've watched your videos where this engine came with a manual transmission from the factory. I know it would physically fit in the engine bay, but the dealership said it wouldn't be compatible, and I don't really understand why.

Toyota Verso-S, its Subaru counterparts, as well as Daihatsu, share parts and engines, so it wouldn't make sense to me that an engine from the same type of car, from the same year and phase, wouldn't be compatible. If I were building a parts-bin car with various engines and the hybrid system, I would, of course, make the same chassis and mounts. But what do I know?

I don't trust the dealership, so I’d like to know if this engine would fit and, more importantly, what else I might need to do besides getting a manual ECU.