diff --git a/lib/_http_client.js b/lib/_http_client.js
index 891da4e3f9a984..8fdcabaa2a8fd0 100644
--- a/lib/_http_client.js
+++ b/lib/_http_client.js
@@ -741,10 +741,24 @@ function socketErrorListener(err) {
   debug('SOCKET ERROR:', err.message, err.stack);
 
   if (req) {
+    const res = req.res;
+    const isUserDestroyError = err === req[kError] || err === res?.errored;
+
     // For Safety. Some additional errors might fire later on
     // and we need to make sure we don't double-fire the error event.
     socket._hadError = true;
-    emitErrorEvent(req, err);
+    // Before a response exists, the request itself failed. Once a response
+    // exists, socket teardown belongs to the IncomingMessage and is finalized
+    // by socketCloseListener. Preserve errors explicitly used to destroy the
+    // request or response, which have historically been emitted on the request.
+    if (!res || isUserDestroyError) {
+      emitErrorEvent(req, err);
+    }
+
+    if (res) {
+      socket.destroy();
+      return;
+    }
   }
 
   const parser = socket.parser;
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-http-client-complete-response-reset.js b/test/parallel/test-http-client-complete-response-reset.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..aa9337dbcc5206
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-http-client-complete-response-reset.js
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+'use strict';
+
+const common = require('../common');
+const assert = require('assert');
+const http = require('http');
+
+const BODY = Buffer.alloc(2 * 1024 * 1024);
+
+const server = http.createServer(common.mustCall((request, response) => {
+  let received = 0;
+
+  request.on('data', function onData(chunk) {
+    received += chunk.length;
+    request.off('data', onData);
+    request.destroy();
+  });
+
+  response.writeHead(413, { 'content-length': 0 });
+  response.end();
+
+  request.on('end', common.mustNotCall());
+  request.on('close', common.mustCall(() => {
+    assert.strictEqual(request.complete, false);
+    assert.ok(received > 0);
+  }));
+}));
+
+server.listen(0, common.mustCall(() => {
+  let response;
+  const req = http.request({
+    method: 'POST',
+    port: server.address().port,
+    headers: {
+      'content-type': 'application/json',
+      'content-length': BODY.length,
+    },
+  }, common.mustCall((res) => {
+    response = res;
+    assert.strictEqual(res.statusCode, 413);
+    // Deliberately do not consume the response body. A response that has
+    // already been received should not be followed by a late ClientRequest
+    // socket error.
+    req.write(BODY);
+    req.end();
+  }));
+
+  req.on('error', common.mustNotCall());
+  req.on('close', common.mustCall(() => {
+    assert(response);
+    assert.strictEqual(response.complete, true);
+    server.close();
+  }));
+
+  req.flushHeaders();
+}));