diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 51df6489267..be0ff3a4596 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -879,6 +879,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-9519. Some coding improvement in SecondaryNameNode#main.
     (Xiao Chen via Yongjun Zhang)
 
+    HDFS-9514. TestDistributedFileSystem.testDFSClientPeerWriteTimeout failing;
+    exception being swallowed. (Wei-Chiu Chuang via Yongjun Zhang)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-8026. Trace FSOutputSummer#writeChecksumChunks rather than
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDistributedFileSystem.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDistributedFileSystem.java
index be03902e464..7620ed2a575 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDistributedFileSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDistributedFileSystem.java
@@ -1096,10 +1096,14 @@ public class TestDistributedFileSystem {
         Assert.fail("read should timeout");
       } catch (SocketTimeoutException ste) {
         long delta = Time.now() - start;
-        Assert.assertTrue("read timedout too soon", delta >= timeout*0.9);
-        Assert.assertTrue("read timedout too late", delta <= timeout*1.1);
-      } catch (Throwable t) {
-        Assert.fail("wrong exception:"+t);
+        if (delta < timeout*0.9) {
+          throw new IOException("read timedout too soon in " + delta + " ms.",
+              ste);
+        }
+        if (delta > timeout*1.1) {
+          throw new IOException("read timedout too late in " + delta + " ms.",
+              ste);
+        }
       }
     } finally {
       cluster.shutdown();
@@ -1143,12 +1147,15 @@ public class TestDistributedFileSystem {
         Assert.fail("write finish in " + delta + " ms" + "but should timedout");
       } catch (SocketTimeoutException ste) {
         long delta = Time.now() - start;
-        Assert.assertTrue("write timedout too soon in " + delta + " ms",
-            delta >= timeout * 0.9);
-        Assert.assertTrue("write timedout too late in " + delta + " ms",
-            delta <= timeout * 1.2);
-      } catch (Throwable t) {
-        Assert.fail("wrong exception:" + t);
+
+        if (delta < timeout * 0.9) {
+          throw new IOException("write timedout too soon in " + delta + " ms.",
+              ste);
+        }
+        if (delta > timeout * 1.2) {
+          throw new IOException("write timedout too late in " + delta + " ms.",
+              ste);
+        }
       }
     } finally {
       cluster.shutdown();