diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/mongoengine/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/mongoengine/default.nix
index b282332188bc..269ebf2ef3cf 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/mongoengine/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/mongoengine/default.nix
@@ -36,12 +36,15 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace setup.py \
-      --replace "coverage==4.2" "coverage"
+      --replace "coverage==4.2" "coverage" \
+      --replace "pymongo>=3.4,<=4.0" "pymongo"
   '';
 
   # tests require mongodb running in background
   doCheck = false;
 
+  pythonImportsCheck = [ "mongoengine" ];
+
   meta = with lib; {
     description = "MongoEngine is a Python Object-Document Mapper for working with MongoDB";
     homepage = "http://mongoengine.org/";