diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/functionscore/FunctionScoreQueryBuilderTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/functionscore/FunctionScoreQueryBuilderTests.java
index 702e8b60917..67ddcbd6b0e 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/functionscore/FunctionScoreQueryBuilderTests.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/functionscore/FunctionScoreQueryBuilderTests.java
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ public class FunctionScoreQueryBuilderTests extends AbstractQueryTestCase<Functi
             break;
         case DATE_FIELD_NAME:
             origin = new DateTime(System.currentTimeMillis() - randomIntBetween(0, 1000000), DateTimeZone.UTC).toString();
-            scale = randomPositiveTimeValue();
+            scale = randomTimeValue(1, 1000, new String[]{"d", "h", "ms", "s", "m"});
             offset = randomPositiveTimeValue();
             break;
         default:
diff --git a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ESTestCase.java b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ESTestCase.java
index 7e07df35e8b..9e6bb080b16 100644
--- a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ESTestCase.java
+++ b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ESTestCase.java
@@ -631,8 +631,12 @@ public abstract class ESTestCase extends LuceneTestCase {
 
     private static final String[] TIME_SUFFIXES = new String[]{"d", "h", "ms", "s", "m", "micros", "nanos"};
 
-    private static String randomTimeValue(int lower, int upper) {
-        return randomIntBetween(lower, upper) + randomFrom(TIME_SUFFIXES);
+    public static String randomTimeValue(int lower, int upper, String[] suffixes) {
+        return randomIntBetween(lower, upper) + randomFrom(suffixes);
+    }
+
+    public static String randomTimeValue(int lower, int upper) {
+        return randomTimeValue(lower, upper, TIME_SUFFIXES);
     }
 
     public static String randomTimeValue() {