diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 26a6cdd11df..0d6b8eb4785 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -182,6 +182,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 * SOLR-4036: field aliases in fl should not cause properties of target field
   to be used. (Martin Koch, yonik)
 
+* SOLR-4003: The SolrZKClient clean method should not try and clear zk paths
+  that start with /zookeeper, as this can fail and stop the removal of
+  further nodes. (Mark Miller)
 
 Other Changes
 ----------------------
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkSolrClientTest.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkSolrClientTest.java
index 883f0833c99..9e0e8c71481 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkSolrClientTest.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkSolrClientTest.java
@@ -71,6 +71,32 @@ public class ZkSolrClientTest extends AbstractSolrTestCase {
     zkClient.close();
     server.shutdown();
   }
+  
+  public void testClean() throws Exception {
+    String zkDir = dataDir.getAbsolutePath() + File.separator
+        + "zookeeper/server1/data";
+    ZkTestServer server = null;
+
+    server = new ZkTestServer(zkDir);
+    server.run();
+    AbstractZkTestCase.tryCleanSolrZkNode(server.getZkHost());
+    
+
+    SolrZkClient zkClient = new SolrZkClient(server.getZkHost(),
+        AbstractZkTestCase.TIMEOUT);
+
+    zkClient.makePath("/test/path/here", true);
+    
+    zkClient.makePath("/zz/path/here", true);
+    
+    zkClient.clean("/");
+    
+    assertFalse(zkClient.exists("/test", true));
+    assertFalse(zkClient.exists("/zz", true));
+
+    zkClient.close();
+    server.shutdown();
+  }
 
   public void testReconnect() throws Exception {
     String zkDir = dataDir.getAbsolutePath() + File.separator
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/SolrZkClient.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/SolrZkClient.java
index 0cc59a96a60..2cd6eabebe5 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/SolrZkClient.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/cloud/SolrZkClient.java
@@ -590,6 +590,8 @@ public class SolrZkClient {
       return;
     }
     for (String string : children) {
+      // we can't clean the built-in zookeeper node
+      if (path.equals("/") && string.equals("zookeeper")) continue;
       if (path.equals("/")) {
         clean(path + string);
       } else {