diff --git a/content/base/src/nsSyncLoadService.cpp b/content/base/src/nsSyncLoadService.cpp
index 073e2991fdd..7f1f6367550 100644
--- a/content/base/src/nsSyncLoadService.cpp
+++ b/content/base/src/nsSyncLoadService.cpp
@@ -441,6 +441,9 @@ nsSyncLoader::PushAsyncStream(nsIStreamListener* aListener)
         }
     }
 
+    // Note that if AsyncOpen failed that's ok -- the only caller of
+    // this method nulls out mChannel immediately after we return.
+
     service->PopThreadEventQueue(currentThreadQ);
     
     return rv;
diff --git a/extensions/xmlextras/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp b/extensions/xmlextras/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp
index 0bb0d70f12b..9be9b82e2ba 100644
--- a/extensions/xmlextras/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp
+++ b/extensions/xmlextras/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp
@@ -1641,6 +1641,9 @@ nsXMLHttpRequest::Send(nsIVariant *aBody)
     if (modalEventQueue) {
       mEventQService->PopThreadEventQueue(modalEventQueue);
     }
+
+    // Drop our ref to the channel to avoid cycles
+    mChannel = nsnull;
     return rv;
   }