diff --git a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/internals/AbstractCoordinator.java b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/internals/AbstractCoordinator.java
index 350a84bf02268..1c2d607713498 100644
--- a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/internals/AbstractCoordinator.java
+++ b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/internals/AbstractCoordinator.java
@@ -888,9 +888,9 @@ public void run() {
                         long now = time.milliseconds();
 
                         if (coordinatorUnknown()) {
-                            if (findCoordinatorFuture == null)
-                                lookupCoordinator();
-                            else
+                            if (findCoordinatorFuture != null || lookupCoordinator().failed())
+                                // the immediate future check ensures that we backoff properly in the case that no
+                                // brokers are available to connect to.
                                 AbstractCoordinator.this.wait(retryBackoffMs);
                         } else if (heartbeat.sessionTimeoutExpired(now)) {
                             // the session timeout has expired without seeing a successful heartbeat, so we should
@@ -941,7 +941,7 @@ public void onFailure(RuntimeException e) {
                 log.error("Unexpected interrupt received in heartbeat thread for group {}", groupId, e);
                 this.failed.set(new RuntimeException(e));
             } catch (RuntimeException e) {
-                log.error("Heartbeat thread for group {} failed due to unexpected error" , groupId, e);
+                log.error("Heartbeat thread for group {} failed due to unexpected error", groupId, e);
                 this.failed.set(e);
             } finally {
                 log.debug("Heartbeat thread for group {} has closed", groupId);