diff --git a/clusters/base/infra/metallb/helmrelease.yaml b/clusters/base/infra/metallb/helmrelease.yaml
index 1f8a309..5244ca9 100644
--- a/clusters/base/infra/metallb/helmrelease.yaml
+++ b/clusters/base/infra/metallb/helmrelease.yaml
@@ -15,3 +15,29 @@ spec:
         namespace: metallb-system
   driftDetection:
     mode: enabled
+  postRenderers:
+    - kustomize:
+        patches:
+          # frr's liveness/startup probes default to timeoutSeconds: 1,
+          # which is too tight when the node is under CPU pressure (an
+          # HTTPS healthz call can't always complete in 1s) - kubelet then
+          # kills+restarts the container, which itself adds more CPU load,
+          # compounding the problem. Give the probes more slack instead.
+          - target:
+              kind: DaemonSet
+              name: metallb-frr-k8s
+            patch: |
+              apiVersion: apps/v1
+              kind: DaemonSet
+              metadata:
+                name: metallb-frr-k8s
+              spec:
+                template:
+                  spec:
+                    containers:
+                      - name: frr
+                        livenessProbe:
+                          timeoutSeconds: 5
+                          failureThreshold: 6
+                        startupProbe:
+                          timeoutSeconds: 5