diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index f2ae5fb3dd1..de1d93d9754 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ Bug Fixes
   more than the given term's frequency in overridden FloatDocValues.floatVal().
   (Michael Kosten, Erik Hatcher, Steve Rowe)
 
+* SOLR-11484: CloudSolrClient does not invalidate cache or retry for RouteException (noble, hossman)
+
+
 Optimizations
 ----------------------
 * SOLR-11285: Refactor autoscaling framework to avoid direct references to Zookeeper and Solr
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClient.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClient.java
index f63eedd7426..772c74139c2 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClient.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClient.java
@@ -607,6 +607,14 @@ public class CloudSolrClient extends SolrClient {
       String name = slice.getName();
       List<String> urls = new ArrayList<>();
       Replica leader = slice.getLeader();
+      if (directUpdatesToLeadersOnly && leader == null) {
+        for (Replica replica : slice.getReplicas(
+            replica -> replica.isActive(getClusterStateProvider().getLiveNodes())
+                && replica.getType() == Replica.Type.NRT)) {
+          leader = replica;
+          break;
+        }
+      }
       if (leader == null) {
         if (directUpdatesToLeadersOnly) {
           continue;
@@ -908,7 +916,7 @@ public class CloudSolrClient extends SolrClient {
               rootCause instanceof NoHttpResponseException ||
               rootCause instanceof SocketException);
 
-      if (wasCommError) {
+      if (wasCommError || (exc instanceof RouteException)) {
         // it was a communication error. it is likely that
         // the node to which the request to be sent is down . So , expire the state
         // so that the next attempt would fetch the fresh state
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClientTest.java b/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClientTest.java
index 2a441b90ab3..8779a7108db 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClientTest.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/CloudSolrClientTest.java
@@ -787,6 +787,65 @@ public class CloudSolrClientTest extends SolrCloudTestCase {
     }
   }
 
+  public void testRetryUpdatesWhenClusterStateIsStale() throws Exception {
+    final String COL = "stale_state_test_col";
+    assert cluster.getJettySolrRunners().size() >= 2;
+
+    final JettySolrRunner old_leader_node = cluster.getJettySolrRunners().get(0);
+    final JettySolrRunner new_leader_node = cluster.getJettySolrRunners().get(1);
+    
+    // start with exactly 1 shard/replica...
+    assertEquals("Couldn't create collection", 0,
+                 CollectionAdminRequest.createCollection(COL, "conf", 1, 1)
+                 .setCreateNodeSet(old_leader_node.getNodeName())
+                 .process(cluster.getSolrClient()).getStatus());
+    AbstractDistribZkTestBase.waitForRecoveriesToFinish
+      (COL, cluster.getSolrClient().getZkStateReader(), true, true, 330);
+
+    // determine the coreNodeName of only current replica
+    Collection<Slice> slices = cluster.getSolrClient().getZkStateReader().getClusterState().getCollection(COL).getSlices();
+    assertEquals(1, slices.size()); // sanity check
+    Slice slice = slices.iterator().next();
+    assertEquals(1, slice.getReplicas().size()); // sanity check
+    final String old_leader_core_node_name = slice.getLeader().getName();
+
+    // NOTE: creating our own CloudSolrClient whose settings we can muck with...
+    try (CloudSolrClient stale_client = getCloudSolrClient(cluster.getZkServer().getZkAddress())) {
+      // don't let collection cache entries get expired, even on a slow machine...
+      stale_client.setCollectionCacheTTl(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
+      stale_client.setDefaultCollection(COL);
+     
+      // do a query to populate stale_client's cache...
+      assertEquals(0, stale_client.query(new SolrQuery("*:*")).getResults().getNumFound());
+      
+      // add 1 replica on a diff node...
+      assertEquals("Couldn't create collection", 0,
+                   CollectionAdminRequest.addReplicaToShard(COL, "shard1")
+                   .setNode(new_leader_node.getNodeName())
+                   // NOTE: don't use our stale_client for this -- don't tip it off of a collection change
+                   .process(cluster.getSolrClient()).getStatus());
+      AbstractDistribZkTestBase.waitForRecoveriesToFinish
+        (COL, cluster.getSolrClient().getZkStateReader(), true, true, 330);
+      
+      // ...and delete our original leader.
+      assertEquals("Couldn't create collection", 0,
+                   CollectionAdminRequest.deleteReplica(COL, "shard1", old_leader_core_node_name)
+                   // NOTE: don't use our stale_client for this -- don't tip it off of a collection change
+                   .process(cluster.getSolrClient()).getStatus());
+      AbstractDistribZkTestBase.waitForRecoveriesToFinish
+        (COL, cluster.getSolrClient().getZkStateReader(), true, true, 330);
+
+      // stale_client's collection state cache should now only point at a leader that no longer exists.
+      
+      // attempt a (direct) update that should succeed in spite of cached cluster state
+      // pointing solely to a node that's no longer part of our collection...
+      assertEquals(0, (new UpdateRequest().add("id", "1").commit(stale_client, COL)).getStatus());
+      assertEquals(1, stale_client.query(new SolrQuery("*:*")).getResults().getNumFound());
+      
+    }
+  }
+  
+
   private static void checkSingleServer(NamedList<Object> response) {
     final CloudSolrClient.RouteResponse rr = (CloudSolrClient.RouteResponse) response;
     final Map<String,LBHttpSolrClient.Req> routes = rr.getRoutes();