diff --git a/fs/autofs4/autofs_i.h b/fs/autofs4/autofs_i.h
index f54c5b21f876..eea25934da62 100644
--- a/fs/autofs4/autofs_i.h
+++ b/fs/autofs4/autofs_i.h
@@ -41,14 +41,6 @@
 
 #define AUTOFS_SUPER_MAGIC 0x0187
 
-/*
- * If the daemon returns a negative response (AUTOFS_IOC_FAIL) then the
- * kernel will keep the negative response cached for up to the time given
- * here, although the time can be shorter if the kernel throws the dcache
- * entry away.  This probably should be settable from user space.
- */
-#define AUTOFS_NEGATIVE_TIMEOUT (60*HZ)	/* 1 minute */
-
 /* Unified info structure.  This is pointed to by both the dentry and
    inode structures.  Each file in the filesystem has an instance of this
    structure.  It holds a reference to the dentry, so dentries are never
diff --git a/fs/autofs4/root.c b/fs/autofs4/root.c
index af9a4c6bbadf..c7ff35774344 100644
--- a/fs/autofs4/root.c
+++ b/fs/autofs4/root.c
@@ -294,14 +294,13 @@ static int try_to_fill_dentry(struct vfsmount *mnt, struct dentry *dentry, int f
 
 		/* Turn this into a real negative dentry? */
 		if (status == -ENOENT) {
-			dentry->d_time = jiffies + AUTOFS_NEGATIVE_TIMEOUT;
 			spin_lock(&dentry->d_lock);
 			dentry->d_flags &= ~DCACHE_AUTOFS_PENDING;
 			spin_unlock(&dentry->d_lock);
-			return 1;
+			return 0;
 		} else if (status) {
 			/* Return a negative dentry, but leave it "pending" */
-			return 1;
+			return 0;
 		}
 	/* Trigger mount for path component or follow link */
 	} else if (flags & (LOOKUP_CONTINUE | LOOKUP_DIRECTORY) ||
@@ -360,13 +359,13 @@ static int autofs4_revalidate(struct dentry *dentry, struct nameidata *nd)
 
 	/* Negative dentry.. invalidate if "old" */
 	if (dentry->d_inode == NULL)
-		return (dentry->d_time - jiffies <= AUTOFS_NEGATIVE_TIMEOUT);
+		return 0;
 
 	/* Check for a non-mountpoint directory with no contents */
 	spin_lock(&dcache_lock);
 	if (S_ISDIR(dentry->d_inode->i_mode) &&
 	    !d_mountpoint(dentry) && 
-	    list_empty(&dentry->d_subdirs)) {
+	    simple_empty_nolock(dentry)) {
 		DPRINTK("dentry=%p %.*s, emptydir",
 			 dentry, dentry->d_name.len, dentry->d_name.name);
 		spin_unlock(&dcache_lock);