diff --git a/docs/topics/signals.rst b/docs/topics/signals.rst
index 3f29aa32330..886d1b866f7 100644
--- a/docs/topics/signals.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/signals.rst
@@ -295,6 +295,23 @@ request_reached_downloader
     :param spider: the spider that yielded the request
     :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.spiders.Spider` object
 
+request_left_downloader
+-----------------------
+
+.. signal:: request_left_downloader
+.. function:: request_left_downloader(request, spider)
+
+    Sent when a :class:`~scrapy.http.Request` leaves the downloader, even in case of
+    failure.
+
+    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.
+
+    :param request: the request that reached the downloader
+    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.http.Request` object
+
+    :param spider: the spider that yielded the request
+    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.spiders.Spider` object
+
 response_received
 -----------------
 
diff --git a/scrapy/core/downloader/__init__.py b/scrapy/core/downloader/__init__.py
index 157dc341873..5a2fdadf53b 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/__init__.py
@@ -181,6 +181,9 @@ def _downloaded(response):
         def finish_transferring(_):
             slot.transferring.remove(request)
             self._process_queue(spider, slot)
+            self.signals.send_catch_log(signal=signals.request_left_downloader,
+                                        request=request,
+                                        spider=spider)
             return _
 
         return dfd.addBoth(finish_transferring)
diff --git a/scrapy/signals.py b/scrapy/signals.py
index 6b91253029b..cd7ed7fb167 100644
--- a/scrapy/signals.py
+++ b/scrapy/signals.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 request_scheduled = object()
 request_dropped = object()
 request_reached_downloader = object()
+request_left_downloader = object()
 response_received = object()
 response_downloaded = object()
 item_scraped = object()
diff --git a/tests/test_request_left.py b/tests/test_request_left.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5cfef8e7d5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_request_left.py
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+from twisted.internet import defer
+from twisted.trial.unittest import TestCase
+from scrapy.signals import request_left_downloader
+from scrapy.spiders import Spider
+from scrapy.utils.test import get_crawler
+from tests.mockserver import MockServer
+
+
+class SignalCatcherSpider(Spider):
+    name = 'signal_catcher'
+
+    def __init__(self, crawler, url, *args, **kwargs):
+        super(SignalCatcherSpider, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+        crawler.signals.connect(self.on_request_left,
+                                signal=request_left_downloader)
+        self.caught_times = 0
+        self.start_urls = [url]
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_crawler(cls, crawler, *args, **kwargs):
+        spider = cls(crawler, *args, **kwargs)
+        return spider
+
+    def on_request_left(self, request, spider):
+        self.caught_times = self.caught_times + 1
+
+
+class TestCatching(TestCase):
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.mockserver = MockServer()
+        self.mockserver.__enter__()
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self.mockserver.__exit__(None, None, None)
+
+    @defer.inlineCallbacks
+    def test_success(self):
+        crawler = get_crawler(SignalCatcherSpider)
+        yield crawler.crawl(self.mockserver.url("/status?n=200"))
+        self.assertEqual(crawler.spider.caught_times, 1)
+
+    @defer.inlineCallbacks
+    def test_timeout(self):
+        crawler = get_crawler(SignalCatcherSpider,
+                              {'DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT': 0.1})
+        yield crawler.crawl(self.mockserver.url("/delay?n=0.2"))
+        self.assertEqual(crawler.spider.caught_times, 1)
+
+    @defer.inlineCallbacks
+    def test_disconnect(self):
+        crawler = get_crawler(SignalCatcherSpider)
+        yield crawler.crawl(self.mockserver.url("/drop"))
+        self.assertEqual(crawler.spider.caught_times, 1)
+
+    @defer.inlineCallbacks
+    def test_noconnect(self):
+        crawler = get_crawler(SignalCatcherSpider)
+        yield crawler.crawl('http://thereisdefinetelynosuchdomain.com')
+        self.assertEqual(crawler.spider.caught_times, 1)