diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.HDFS-3042.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.HDFS-3042.txt
index bb171adb8e..8bf3d88c9a 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.HDFS-3042.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.HDFS-3042.txt
@@ -25,3 +25,5 @@ HADOOP-8306. ZKFC: improve error message when ZK is not running. (todd)
 HADOOP-8279. Allow manual failover to be invoked when auto-failover is enabled. (todd)
 
 HADOOP-8276. Auto-HA: add config for java options to pass to zkfc daemon (todd via eli)
+
+HADOOP-8405. ZKFC tests leak ZK instances. (todd)
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ha/ActiveStandbyElector.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ha/ActiveStandbyElector.java
index 2081755fbf..a4ed255deb 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ha/ActiveStandbyElector.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ha/ActiveStandbyElector.java
@@ -717,11 +717,20 @@ private boolean reEstablishSession() {
   }
 
   private void createConnection() throws IOException {
+    if (zkClient != null) {
+      try {
+        zkClient.close();
+      } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+        throw new IOException("Interrupted while closing ZK",
+            e);
+      }
+      zkClient = null;
+    }
     zkClient = getNewZooKeeper();
     LOG.debug("Created new connection for " + this);
   }
   
-  private void terminateConnection() {
+  void terminateConnection() {
     if (zkClient == null) {
       return;
     }
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ha/ZKFailoverController.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ha/ZKFailoverController.java
index 7b423d3b67..c02fe0d163 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ha/ZKFailoverController.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/ha/ZKFailoverController.java
@@ -163,6 +163,10 @@ public Integer run() {
             return doRun(args);
           } catch (Exception t) {
             throw new RuntimeException(t);
+          } finally {
+            if (elector != null) {
+              elector.terminateConnection();
+            }
           }
         }
       });