diff --git a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClient.java b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClient.java
index 4db6b271946..27d28b5b336 100644
--- a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClient.java
+++ b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClient.java
@@ -1546,9 +1546,8 @@ public class KafkaAdminClient extends AdminClient {
          */
         void call(Call call, long now) {
             if (hardShutdownTimeMs.get() != INVALID_SHUTDOWN_TIME) {
-                log.debug("The AdminClient is not accepting new calls. Timing out {}.", call);
-                call.handleTimeoutFailure(time.milliseconds(),
-                    new TimeoutException("The AdminClient thread is not accepting new calls."));
+                log.debug("Cannot accept new call {} when AdminClient is closing.", call);
+                call.handleFailure(new IllegalStateException("Cannot accept new calls when AdminClient is closing."));
             } else if (metadataManager.usingBootstrapControllers() &&
                     (!call.nodeProvider.supportsUseControllers())) {
                 call.fail(now, new UnsupportedEndpointTypeException("This Admin API is not " +
diff --git a/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClientTest.java b/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClientTest.java
index 229d3119871..378e08b2c45 100644
--- a/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClientTest.java
+++ b/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/admin/KafkaAdminClientTest.java
@@ -478,6 +478,18 @@ public class KafkaAdminClientTest {
         callbackCalled.acquire();
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testAdminClientFailureWhenClosed() {
+        MockTime time = new MockTime();
+        AdminClientUnitTestEnv env = new AdminClientUnitTestEnv(time, mockCluster(3, 0));
+        env.adminClient().close();
+        ExecutionException e = assertThrows(ExecutionException.class, () -> env.adminClient().createTopics(
+                singleton(new NewTopic("myTopic", Collections.singletonMap(0, asList(0, 1, 2)))),
+                new CreateTopicsOptions().timeoutMs(10000)).all().get());
+        assertTrue(e.getCause() instanceof IllegalStateException,
+                "Expected an IllegalStateException error, but got " + Utils.stackTrace(e));
+    }
+
     private static OffsetDeleteResponse prepareOffsetDeleteResponse(Errors error) {
         return new OffsetDeleteResponse(
             new OffsetDeleteResponseData()
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/api/PlaintextAdminIntegrationTest.scala b/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/api/PlaintextAdminIntegrationTest.scala
index 784374d23e8..5bb3533146c 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/api/PlaintextAdminIntegrationTest.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/api/PlaintextAdminIntegrationTest.scala
@@ -1026,7 +1026,7 @@ class PlaintextAdminIntegrationTest extends BaseAdminIntegrationTest {
 
   /**
     * Test closing the AdminClient with a generous timeout.  Calls in progress should be completed,
-    * since they can be done within the timeout.  New calls should receive timeouts.
+    * since they can be done within the timeout.  New calls should receive exceptions.
     */
   @ParameterizedTest(name = TestInfoUtils.TestWithParameterizedQuorumName)
   @ValueSource(strings = Array("zk", "kraft"))
@@ -1037,7 +1037,7 @@ class PlaintextAdminIntegrationTest extends BaseAdminIntegrationTest {
     val future = client.createTopics(newTopics.asJava, new CreateTopicsOptions().validateOnly(true)).all()
     client.close(time.Duration.ofHours(2))
     val future2 = client.createTopics(newTopics.asJava, new CreateTopicsOptions().validateOnly(true)).all()
-    assertFutureExceptionTypeEquals(future2, classOf[TimeoutException])
+    assertFutureExceptionTypeEquals(future2, classOf[IllegalStateException])
     future.get
     client.close(time.Duration.ofMinutes(30)) // multiple close-with-timeout should have no effect
   }