diff --git a/system-test/backend_auth_fail.cpp b/system-test/backend_auth_fail.cpp
index 4923e819d..00d85c64a 100644
--- a/system-test/backend_auth_fail.cpp
+++ b/system-test/backend_auth_fail.cpp
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
     MYSQL* mysql[1000];
     TestConnections* Test = new TestConnections(argc, argv);
 
-    Test->repl->execute_query_all_nodes((char*) "set global max_connections = 10;");
+    Test->repl->execute_query_all_nodes((char*) "set global max_connections = 30;");
 
     for (int x = 0; x < 3; x++)
     {
@@ -31,10 +31,6 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
         }
     }
 
-    // Wait for the connections to clean up
-    Test->stop_timeout();
-    sleep(2 * Test->repl->N);
-
     Test->check_maxscale_alive(0);
     int rval = Test->global_result;
     delete Test;
diff --git a/system-test/maxtest/src/mariadb_func.cc b/system-test/maxtest/src/mariadb_func.cc
index a899fcca3..1a4ed9cc7 100644
--- a/system-test/maxtest/src/mariadb_func.cc
+++ b/system-test/maxtest/src/mariadb_func.cc
@@ -50,6 +50,9 @@ MYSQL* open_conn_db_flags(int port,
         set_ssl(conn);
     }
 
+    unsigned int timeout = 15;
+    mysql_options(conn, MYSQL_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, &timeout);
+
     // MXS-2568: This fixes mxs1828_double_local_infile
     mysql_optionsv(conn, MYSQL_OPT_LOCAL_INFILE, (void*)"1");