diff --git a/dumux/implicit/common/implicitproblem.hh b/dumux/implicit/common/implicitproblem.hh
index 0f0af3616de0d18bf10746f818f85918c2ff1037..934698cbf162aac3dddc0e6321fff8048bf8e4c6 100644
--- a/dumux/implicit/common/implicitproblem.hh
+++ b/dumux/implicit/common/implicitproblem.hh
@@ -509,7 +509,8 @@ public:
      */
     void timeIntegration()
     {
-        const int maxFails = 10;
+        const int maxFails =
+                GET_PARAM_FROM_GROUP(TypeTag, int, Implicit, MaxTimeStepDivisions);
         for (int i = 0; i < maxFails; ++i) {
             if (model_.update(newtonMethod_, newtonCtl_))
                 return;
diff --git a/dumux/implicit/common/implicitproperties.hh b/dumux/implicit/common/implicitproperties.hh
index 5b9574598a6df1911d4f115d1b645b4f2c9e4f92..7b9a0d6b82e9904be23b0f6c07ede42868b737c7 100644
--- a/dumux/implicit/common/implicitproperties.hh
+++ b/dumux/implicit/common/implicitproperties.hh
@@ -124,6 +124,10 @@ NEW_PROP_TAG(ElementMapper);
 //! mapper for degrees of freedom
 NEW_PROP_TAG(DofMapper);
 
+//! the maximum allowed number of timestep divisions for the
+//! Newton solver
+NEW_PROP_TAG(ImplicitMaxTimeStepDivisions);
+
 //! indicate whether discretization is box or not
 NEW_PROP_TAG(ImplicitIsBox);
 
diff --git a/dumux/implicit/common/implicitpropertydefaults.hh b/dumux/implicit/common/implicitpropertydefaults.hh
index 1b5a3cf5c3fb2aa5fc3395bb522c6e1697a396bd..53772137670de64654eeabdd4923b4112534240c 100644
--- a/dumux/implicit/common/implicitpropertydefaults.hh
+++ b/dumux/implicit/common/implicitpropertydefaults.hh
@@ -147,6 +147,9 @@ SET_INT_PROP(ImplicitBase, LinearSolverMaxIterations, 250);
 //! set number of equations of the mathematical model as default
 SET_INT_PROP(ImplicitBase, LinearSolverBlockSize, GET_PROP_VALUE(TypeTag, NumEq));
 
+//! set number of maximum timestep divisions to 10
+SET_INT_PROP(ImplicitBase, ImplicitMaxTimeStepDivisions, 10);
+
 } // namespace Properties
 } // namespace Dumux