diff --git a/pkg/repo/chartrepo.go b/pkg/repo/chartrepo.go
index 4e4bc6fe2..cd9d6c547 100644
--- a/pkg/repo/chartrepo.go
+++ b/pkg/repo/chartrepo.go
@@ -270,8 +270,13 @@ func ResolveReferenceURL(baseURL, refURL string) (string, error) {
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to parse %s as URL: %v", refURL, err)
 	}
 
+	// if the base URL contains query string parameters,
+	// propagate them to the child URL but only if the
+	// refURL is relative to baseURL
 	resolvedURL := parsedBaseURL.ResolveReference(parsedRefURL)
-	resolvedURL.RawQuery = parsedBaseURL.RawQuery
+	if (resolvedURL.Hostname() == parsedBaseURL.Hostname()) && (resolvedURL.Port() == parsedBaseURL.Port()) {
+		resolvedURL.RawQuery = parsedBaseURL.RawQuery
+	}
 
 	return resolvedURL.String(), nil
 }
diff --git a/pkg/repo/chartrepo_test.go b/pkg/repo/chartrepo_test.go
index 4b290a0d1..19071872d 100644
--- a/pkg/repo/chartrepo_test.go
+++ b/pkg/repo/chartrepo_test.go
@@ -302,4 +302,12 @@ func TestResolveReferenceURL(t *testing.T) {
 	if chartURL != "https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/nginx-0.2.0.tgz" {
 		t.Errorf("%s", chartURL)
 	}
+
+	chartURL, err = ResolveReferenceURL("http://localhost:8123/?querystring", "https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/nginx-0.2.0.tgz")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("%s", err)
+	}
+	if chartURL != "https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/nginx-0.2.0.tgz" {
+		t.Errorf("%s contains query string from base URL when it shouldn't", chartURL)
+	}
 }