diff --git a/docs/documentation/e2e.md b/docs/documentation/e2e.md
index 84b21fd14c36..3e507a34c455 100644
--- a/docs/documentation/e2e.md
+++ b/docs/documentation/e2e.md
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ End-to-end tests are run via [Protractor] (https://angular.github.io/protractor/
   <p>
     Compile and Serve the app. All serve options are also available. The live-reload option defaults to false, and the default port will be random.
   </p>
+  <p>
+    NOTE: Build failure will not launch the e2e task. You must first fix error(s) and run e2e again.
+  </p>
 </details>
 
 <details>
diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/commands/e2e.ts b/packages/@angular/cli/commands/e2e.ts
index c4496b948893..fc6d084816a8 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/commands/e2e.ts
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/commands/e2e.ts
@@ -107,11 +107,14 @@ const E2eCommand = Command.extend({
       // Protractor will end the proccess, so we don't need to kill the dev server
       return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
         let firstRebuild = true;
-        function rebuildCb() {
+        function rebuildCb(stats: any) {
           // don't run re-run tests on subsequent rebuilds
-          if (firstRebuild) {
+          const cleanBuild = !!!stats.compilation.errors.length;
+          if (firstRebuild && cleanBuild) {
             firstRebuild = false;
             return resolve(e2eTask.run(commandOptions));
+          } else {
+            return reject('Build did not succeed. Please fix errors before running e2e task');
           }
         }