diff --git a/test/parallel/test-fs-utimes.js b/test/parallel/test-fs-utimes.js
index 5d5cb40ec1..f245a7962d 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-fs-utimes.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-fs-utimes.js
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ function stat_resource(resource) {
 }
 
 function check_mtime(resource, mtime) {
-  var mtime = fs._toUnixTimestamp(mtime);
+  mtime = fs._toUnixTimestamp(mtime);
   var stats = stat_resource(resource);
   var real_mtime = fs._toUnixTimestamp(stats.mtime);
   // check up to single-second precision
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-fs-write-file.js b/test/parallel/test-fs-write-file.js
index a29e841ea2..14fb3e98ac 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-fs-write-file.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-fs-write-file.js
@@ -71,7 +71,6 @@ fs.writeFile(filename3, n, { mode: m }, function(e) {
 
 // test that writeFile accepts file descriptors
 var filename4 = join(common.tmpDir, 'test4.txt');
-var buf = new Buffer(s, 'utf8');
 
 fs.open(filename4, 'w+', function(e, fd) {
   if (e) throw e;