diff --git a/test/e2e/storage/drivers/csi.go b/test/e2e/storage/drivers/csi.go
index 70eba6b2e70..beb33c1c9f0 100644
--- a/test/e2e/storage/drivers/csi.go
+++ b/test/e2e/storage/drivers/csi.go
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/onsi/ginkgo"
 	"google.golang.org/grpc/codes"
+	appsv1 "k8s.io/api/apps/v1"
 	v1 "k8s.io/api/core/v1"
 	storagev1 "k8s.io/api/storage/v1"
 	apierrors "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/errors"
@@ -240,7 +241,33 @@ func (h *hostpathCSIDriver) PrepareTest(f *framework.Framework) (*storageframewo
 		NodeName:                 node.Name,
 	}
 	cleanup, err := utils.CreateFromManifests(config.Framework, driverNamespace, func(item interface{}) error {
-		return utils.PatchCSIDeployment(config.Framework, o, item)
+		if err := utils.PatchCSIDeployment(config.Framework, o, item); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+
+		// Remove csi-external-health-monitor-agent and
+		// csi-external-health-monitor-controller
+		// containers. They are not needed for any of the
+		// tests and in practice apparently caused enough
+		// overhead that even unrelated tests timed out. For
+		// example, in the pull-kubernetes-e2e-kind test, 43
+		// out of 5771 tests failed, including tests from
+		// sig-node, sig-cli, sig-api-machinery, sig-network.
+		switch item := item.(type) {
+		case *appsv1.StatefulSet:
+			var containers []v1.Container
+			for _, container := range item.Spec.Template.Spec.Containers {
+				switch container.Name {
+				case "csi-external-health-monitor-agent", "csi-external-health-monitor-controller":
+					// Remove these containers.
+				default:
+					// Keep the others.
+					containers = append(containers, container)
+				}
+			}
+			item.Spec.Template.Spec.Containers = containers
+		}
+		return nil
 	}, h.manifests...)
 
 	if err != nil {