diff --git a/drivers/i2c/algos/i2c-algo-pca.c b/drivers/i2c/algos/i2c-algo-pca.c
index cc3a952401f2ea8354cf89ac5e43c151bd151cbe..ff2db0da44175b2dbfc95ae63c93c62f78692db0 100644
--- a/drivers/i2c/algos/i2c-algo-pca.c
+++ b/drivers/i2c/algos/i2c-algo-pca.c
@@ -187,12 +187,14 @@ static int pca_xfer(struct i2c_adapter *i2c_adap,
 	int numbytes = 0;
 	int state;
 	int ret;
+	int timeout = 100;
 
-	state = pca_status(adap);
-	if ( state != 0xF8 ) {
-		dev_dbg(&i2c_adap->dev, "bus is not idle. status is %#04x\n", state );
-		/* FIXME: what to do. Force stop ? */
-		return -EREMOTEIO;
+	while ((state = pca_status(adap)) != 0xf8 && timeout--) {
+		msleep(10);
+	}
+	if (state != 0xf8) {
+		dev_dbg(&i2c_adap->dev, "bus is not idle. status is %#04x\n", state);
+		return -EIO;
 	}
 
 	DEB1("{{{ XFER %d messages\n", num);