diff --git a/test/e2e/apimachinery/protocol.go b/test/e2e/apimachinery/protocol.go
index 9effdae5c1c..13ebccdf6f9 100644
--- a/test/e2e/apimachinery/protocol.go
+++ b/test/e2e/apimachinery/protocol.go
@@ -64,7 +64,11 @@ var _ = SIGDescribe("client-go should negotiate", func() {
 				// this is allowed
 			case watch.Error:
 				err := errors.FromObject(evt.Object)
-				if errors.IsGone(err) {
+				// In Kubernetes 1.17 and earlier, the api server returns both apierrs.StatusReasonExpired and
+				// apierrs.StatusReasonGone for HTTP 410 (Gone) status code responses. In 1.18 the kube server is more consistent
+				// and always returns apierrs.StatusReasonExpired. For backward compatibility we can only remove the apierrs.IsGone
+				// check when we fully drop support for Kubernetes 1.17 servers from reflectors.
+				if errors.IsGone(err) || errors.IsResourceExpired(err) {
 					// this is allowed, since the kubernetes object could be very old
 					break
 				}