diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/filters/timeout.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/filters/timeout.go
index 9232fcb516a..ed2de1a9972 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/filters/timeout.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/filters/timeout.go
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ func (tw *baseTimeoutWriter) timeout(err *apierrors.StatusError) {
 	if !tw.wroteHeader && !tw.hijacked {
 		tw.w.WriteHeader(http.StatusGatewayTimeout)
 		enc := json.NewEncoder(tw.w)
-		enc.Encode(err)
+		enc.Encode(&err.ErrStatus)
 	} else {
 		// The timeout writer has been used by the inner handler. There is
 		// no way to timeout the HTTP request at the point. We have to shutdown
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/filters/timeout_test.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/filters/timeout_test.go
index 4498122414c..991427231a8 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/filters/timeout_test.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/filters/timeout_test.go
@@ -17,15 +17,18 @@ limitations under the License.
 package filters
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/http/httptest"
+	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
 	apierrors "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/errors"
+	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema"
-	"strings"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/diff"
 )
 
 func TestTimeout(t *testing.T) {
@@ -50,7 +53,7 @@ func TestTimeout(t *testing.T) {
 	sendResponse <- struct{}{}
 	res, err := http.Get(ts.URL)
 	if err != nil {
-		t.Error(err)
+		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	if res.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
 		t.Errorf("got res.StatusCode %d; expected %d", res.StatusCode, http.StatusOK)
@@ -67,14 +70,18 @@ func TestTimeout(t *testing.T) {
 	timeout <- time.Time{}
 	res, err = http.Get(ts.URL)
 	if err != nil {
-		t.Error(err)
+		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	if res.StatusCode != http.StatusGatewayTimeout {
 		t.Errorf("got res.StatusCode %d; expected %d", res.StatusCode, http.StatusServiceUnavailable)
 	}
 	body, _ = ioutil.ReadAll(res.Body)
-	if !strings.Contains(string(body), timeoutErr.Error()) {
-		t.Errorf("got body %q; expected it to contain %q", string(body), timeoutErr.Error())
+	status := &metav1.Status{}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(body, status); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if !reflect.DeepEqual(status, &timeoutErr.ErrStatus) {
+		t.Errorf("unexpected object: %s", diff.ObjectReflectDiff(&timeoutErr.ErrStatus, status))
 	}
 
 	// Now try to send a response
diff --git a/vendor/BUILD b/vendor/BUILD
index ecba0181aeb..c0ba4e0a7d9 100644
--- a/vendor/BUILD
+++ b/vendor/BUILD
@@ -10508,7 +10508,9 @@ go_test(
     tags = ["automanaged"],
     deps = [
         "//vendor:k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/errors",
+        "//vendor:k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1",
         "//vendor:k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema",
+        "//vendor:k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/diff",
         "//vendor:k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets",
         "//vendor:k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/endpoints/filters",
         "//vendor:k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/endpoints/request",