diff --git a/docs/topics/signals.rst b/docs/topics/signals.rst
index f13e8270c..ff07b9d55 100644
--- a/docs/topics/signals.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/signals.rst
@@ -295,23 +295,6 @@ 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` left downloader even in case of
-    failure.
-
-    The signal does not support returning deferreds from their handlers.
-
-    :param request: the request that reached 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 d856a2f37..4695d75f4 100644
--- a/scrapy/core/downloader/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/core/downloader/__init__.py
@@ -188,9 +188,6 @@ class Downloader(object):
         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 2ea986b8c..c0e4bb74e 100644
--- a/scrapy/signals.py
+++ b/scrapy/signals.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ spider_error = object()
 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
deleted file mode 100644
index ddeca0499..000000000
--- a/tests/test_request_left.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
-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_response_download,
-                                signal=request_left_downloader)
-        self.catched_times = 0
-        self.start_urls = [url]
-
-    @classmethod
-    def from_crawler(cls, crawler, *args, **kwargs):
-        spider = cls(crawler, *args, **kwargs)
-        return spider
-
-    def on_response_download(self, request, spider):
-        self.catched_times = self.catched_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.catched_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.catched_times, 1)
-
-    @defer.inlineCallbacks
-    def test_disconnect(self):
-        crawler = get_crawler(SignalCatcherSpider)
-        yield crawler.crawl(self.mockserver.url("/drop"))
-        self.assertEqual(crawler.spider.catched_times, 1)
-
-    @defer.inlineCallbacks
-    def test_noconnect(self):
-        crawler = get_crawler(SignalCatcherSpider)
-        yield crawler.crawl('http://thereisdefinetelynosuchdomain.com')
-        self.assertEqual(crawler.spider.catched_times, 1)