diff --git a/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpContentDecoder.java b/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpContentDecoder.java
index 7b7ec71a08..b393a9355b 100644
--- a/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpContentDecoder.java
+++ b/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpContentDecoder.java
@@ -63,7 +63,10 @@ public abstract class HttpContentDecoder extends MessageToMessageDecoder<Object,
         } else if (msg instanceof HttpMessage) {
             HttpMessage m = (HttpMessage) msg;
 
-            decoder = null;
+            if (decoder != null) {
+                // Clean-up the previous decoder if not cleaned up correctly.
+                finishDecode(Unpooled.buffer());
+            }
 
             // Determine the content encoding.
             String contentEncoding = m.getHeader(HttpHeaders.Names.CONTENT_ENCODING);
diff --git a/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpContentEncoder.java b/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpContentEncoder.java
index 63af7f9717..22b315c9b9 100644
--- a/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpContentEncoder.java
+++ b/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpContentEncoder.java
@@ -88,7 +88,10 @@ public abstract class HttpContentEncoder extends MessageToMessageCodec<HttpMessa
         } else  if (msg instanceof HttpMessage) {
             HttpMessage m = (HttpMessage) msg;
 
-            encoder = null;
+            if (encoder != null) {
+                // Clean-up the previous encoder if not cleaned up correctly.
+                finishEncode(Unpooled.buffer());
+            }
 
             // Determine the content encoding.
             String acceptEncoding = acceptEncodingQueue.poll();