diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/nested/SimpleNestedTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/nested/SimpleNestedTests.java
index 69da21087ee..a0639b060f8 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/nested/SimpleNestedTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/nested/SimpleNestedTests.java
@@ -274,8 +274,6 @@ public class SimpleNestedTests extends AbstractSharedClusterTest {
 
     @Test
     public void multiNested() throws Exception {
-        client().admin().indices().prepareDelete().execute().actionGet();
-
         client().admin().indices().prepareCreate("test")
                 .addMapping("type1", jsonBuilder().startObject().startObject("type1").startObject("properties")
                         .startObject("nested1")
@@ -285,8 +283,7 @@ public class SimpleNestedTests extends AbstractSharedClusterTest {
                         .endObject().endObject().endObject())
                 .execute().actionGet();
 
-        client().admin().cluster().prepareHealth().setWaitForEvents(Priority.LANGUID).setWaitForGreenStatus().execute().actionGet();
-
+        ensureGreen();
         client().prepareIndex("test", "type1", "1").setSource(jsonBuilder()
                 .startObject()
                 .field("field", "value")
@@ -297,10 +294,10 @@ public class SimpleNestedTests extends AbstractSharedClusterTest {
                 .endObject()).execute().actionGet();
 
         // flush, so we fetch it from the index (as see that we filter nested docs)
-        client().admin().indices().prepareFlush().setRefresh(true).execute().actionGet();
+        flush();
         GetResponse getResponse = client().prepareGet("test", "type1", "1").execute().actionGet();
         assertThat(getResponse.isExists(), equalTo(true));
-
+        waitForRelocation(ClusterHealthStatus.GREEN);
         // check the numDocs
         IndicesStatusResponse statusResponse = client().admin().indices().prepareStatus().execute().actionGet();
         assertThat(statusResponse.getIndex("test").getDocs().getNumDocs(), equalTo(7l));
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/customscore/CustomScoreSearchTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/customscore/CustomScoreSearchTests.java
index 0115440a052..0126e3b892e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/customscore/CustomScoreSearchTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/customscore/CustomScoreSearchTests.java
@@ -406,7 +406,7 @@ public class CustomScoreSearchTests extends AbstractSharedClusterTest {
 
         assertThat(Arrays.toString(searchResponse.getShardFailures()), searchResponse.getFailedShards(), equalTo(0));
         assertThat(searchResponse.getHits().totalHits(), equalTo(4l));
-        assertThat(searchResponse.getHits().getAt(0).id(), equalTo("1"));
+        assertThat(searchResponse.getHits().getAt(0).id(), anyOf(equalTo("1"), equalTo("3"))); // could be both depending on the order of the docs internally (lucene order)
         assertThat(searchResponse.getHits().getAt(0).score(), equalTo(5.0f));
         logger.info("--> Hit[0] {} Explanation {}", searchResponse.getHits().getAt(0).id(), searchResponse.getHits().getAt(0).explanation());
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/highlight/HighlighterSearchTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/highlight/HighlighterSearchTests.java
index 59ed01b3d8e..85dfd7d76c0 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/highlight/HighlighterSearchTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/search/highlight/HighlighterSearchTests.java
@@ -905,19 +905,17 @@ public class HighlighterSearchTests extends AbstractSharedClusterTest {
                         .endObject().endObject()
                         .endObject().endObject().endObject())
                 .execute().actionGet();
-
-        client().admin().cluster().prepareHealth().setWaitForEvents(Priority.LANGUID).setWaitForYellowStatus().execute().actionGet();
-
+        waitForRelocation();
+        ensureGreen();
         client().prepareIndex("test", "type1", "1").setSource("title", "this is a test").execute().actionGet();
-        client().admin().indices().prepareRefresh().execute().actionGet();
-
+        refresh();
         // simple search on body with standard analyzer with a simple field query
         SearchResponse search = client().prepareSearch()
                 .setQuery(fieldQuery("title", "this is a test"))
                 .setHighlighterEncoder("html")
                 .addHighlightedField("title", 50, 1)
                 .execute().actionGet();
-        assertThat(Arrays.toString(search.getShardFailures()), search.getFailedShards(), equalTo(0));
+        
 
         SearchHit hit = search.getHits().getAt(0);
         assertThat(hit.highlightFields().get("title").fragments()[0].string(), equalTo("this is a <em>test</em>"));