diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b97e65b8ae..2f36c9fd0c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file, in reverse
 
 ### Fixed
 
-- Nothing.
+[#149](https://github.com/zendframework/zend-http/pull/149) Client::setUri() should keep relative uri status
 
 ## 2.8.2 - 2018-08-13
 
@@ -336,4 +336,4 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file, in reverse
 - [#14](https://github.com/zendframework/zend-http/pull/14) fixes
   `Zend\Http\PhpEnvironment\Request` to ensure that empty `SCRIPT_FILENAME` and
   `SCRIPT_NAME` values which result in an empty `$baseUrl` will not raise an
-  `E_WARNING` when used to do a `strpos()` check during base URI detection.
+  `E_WARNING` when used to do a `strpos()` check during base URI detection.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Client.php b/src/Client.php
index dab67b8f74..9396f591b6 100644
--- a/src/Client.php
+++ b/src/Client.php
@@ -324,14 +324,18 @@ public function setUri($uri)
                 $this->clearAuth();
             }
 
+            $uri = $this->getUri();
+            $user = $uri->getUser();
+            $password = $uri->getPassword();
+
             // Set auth if username and password has been specified in the uri
-            if ($this->getUri()->getUser() && $this->getUri()->getPassword()) {
-                $this->setAuth($this->getUri()->getUser(), $this->getUri()->getPassword());
+            if ($user && $password) {
+                $this->setAuth($user, $password);
             }
 
             // We have no ports, set the defaults
-            if (! $this->getUri()->getPort()) {
-                $this->getUri()->setPort(($this->getUri()->getScheme() == 'https' ? 443 : 80));
+            if (! $uri->getPort() && $uri->isAbsolute()) {
+                $uri->setPort($uri->getScheme() === 'https' ? 443 : 80);
             }
         }
         return $this;
@@ -901,8 +905,8 @@ public function send(Request $request = null)
                 }
             }
             // If we have no ports, set the defaults
-            if (! $uri->getPort()) {
-                $uri->setPort($uri->getScheme() == 'https' ? 443 : 80);
+            if (! $uri->getPort() && $uri->isAbsolute()) {
+                $uri->setPort($uri->getScheme() === 'https' ? 443 : 80);
             }
 
             // method
diff --git a/test/ClientTest.php b/test/ClientTest.php
index 0794927f2c..2b018d0e73 100644
--- a/test/ClientTest.php
+++ b/test/ClientTest.php
@@ -524,4 +524,59 @@ public function testFormUrlEncodeSeparator()
         $rawRequest = $client->getLastRawRequest();
         $this->assertContains('foo=bar&baz=foo', $rawRequest);
     }
+
+    public function uriDataProvider()
+    {
+        return [
+            'valid-relative' => ['/example', true],
+            'invalid-absolute' => ['http://localhost/example', false],
+        ];
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider uriDataProvider
+     */
+    public function testUriCorrectlyDeterminesWhetherOrNotItIsAValidRelativeUri($uri, $isValidRelativeURI)
+    {
+        $client = new Client($uri);
+        $this->assertSame($isValidRelativeURI, $client->getUri()->isValidRelative());
+
+        $client->setAdapter(Test::class);
+        $client->send();
+        $this->assertSame($isValidRelativeURI, $client->getUri()->isValidRelative());
+    }
+
+    public function portChangeDataProvider()
+    {
+        return [
+            'default-https' => ['https://localhost/example', 443],
+            'default-http' => ['http://localhost/example', 80]
+        ];
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider portChangeDataProvider
+     */
+    public function testUriPortIsSetToAppropriateDefaultValueWhenAnUriOmittingThePortIsProvided($absoluteURI, $port)
+    {
+        $client = new Client();
+        $client->getUri()->setPort(null);
+
+        $client->setUri($absoluteURI);
+        $this->assertSame($port, $client->getUri()->getPort());
+
+        $client->setAdapter(Test::class);
+        $client->send();
+        $this->assertSame($port, $client->getUri()->getPort());
+    }
+
+    public function testUriPortIsNotSetWhenUriIsRelative()
+    {
+        $client = new Client('/example');
+        $this->assertNull($client->getUri()->getPort());
+
+        $client->setAdapter(Test::class);
+        $client->send();
+        $this->assertNull($client->getUri()->getPort());
+    }
 }