diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
index 64ebba7578c4f..87d5ec9ae5336 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
@@ -311,7 +311,13 @@ class BuildPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
     /**
      * Returns a closure which can be used with a MavenPom for fixing problems with gradle generated poms.
      *
-     * The current fixup is to set compile time deps back to compile from runtime (known issue with maven-publish plugin).
+     * <ul>
+     *     <li>Remove transitive dependencies. We currently exclude all artifacts explicitly instead of using wildcards
+     *         as Ivy incorrectly translates POMs with * excludes to Ivy XML with * excludes which results in the main artifact
+     *         being excluded as well (see https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/IVY-1531). Note that Gradle 2.14+ automatically
+     *         translates non-transitive dependencies to * excludes. We should revisit this when upgrading Gradle.</li>
+     *     <li>Set compile time deps back to compile from runtime (known issue with maven-publish plugin)</li>
+     * </ul>
      */
     private static Closure fixupDependencies(Project project) {
         return { XmlProvider xml ->
@@ -321,15 +327,53 @@ class BuildPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
                 return
             }
 
-            // fix deps incorrectly marked as runtime back to compile time deps
-            // see https://discuss.gradle.org/t/maven-publish-plugin-generated-pom-making-dependency-scope-runtime/7494/4
+            // check each dependency for any transitive deps
             for (Node depNode : depsNodes.get(0).children()) {
+                String groupId = depNode.get('groupId').get(0).text()
+                String artifactId = depNode.get('artifactId').get(0).text()
+                String version = depNode.get('version').get(0).text()
+
+                // fix deps incorrectly marked as runtime back to compile time deps
+                // see https://discuss.gradle.org/t/maven-publish-plugin-generated-pom-making-dependency-scope-runtime/7494/4
                 boolean isCompileDep = project.configurations.compile.allDependencies.find { dep ->
                     dep.name == depNode.artifactId.text()
                 }
                 if (depNode.scope.text() == 'runtime' && isCompileDep) {
                     depNode.scope*.value = 'compile'
                 }
+
+                // remove any exclusions added by gradle, they contain wildcards and systems like ivy have bugs with wildcards
+                // see https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/24490
+                NodeList exclusionsNode = depNode.get('exclusions')
+                if (exclusionsNode.size() > 0) {
+                    depNode.remove(exclusionsNode.get(0))
+                }
+
+                // collect the transitive deps now that we know what this dependency is
+                String depConfig = transitiveDepConfigName(groupId, artifactId, version)
+                Configuration configuration = project.configurations.findByName(depConfig)
+                if (configuration == null) {
+                    continue // we did not make this dep non-transitive
+                }
+                Set<ResolvedArtifact> artifacts = configuration.resolvedConfiguration.resolvedArtifacts
+                if (artifacts.size() <= 1) {
+                    // this dep has no transitive deps (or the only artifact is itself)
+                    continue
+                }
+
+                // we now know we have something to exclude, so add exclusions for all artifacts except the main one
+                Node exclusions = depNode.appendNode('exclusions')
+                for (ResolvedArtifact artifact : artifacts) {
+                    ModuleVersionIdentifier moduleVersionIdentifier = artifact.moduleVersion.id;
+                    String depGroupId = moduleVersionIdentifier.group
+                    String depArtifactId = moduleVersionIdentifier.name
+                    // add exclusions for all artifacts except the main one
+                    if (depGroupId != groupId || depArtifactId != artifactId) {
+                        Node exclusion = exclusions.appendNode('exclusion')
+                        exclusion.appendNode('groupId', depGroupId)
+                        exclusion.appendNode('artifactId', depArtifactId)
+                    }
+                }
             }
         }
     }