diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 159724fe..603a17b3 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -145,6 +145,7 @@ mysqld.username                            | Username to be used for connecting
 config.my-cnf                              | Path to .my.cnf file to read MySQL credentials from. (default: `~/.my.cnf`)
 log.level                                  | Logging verbosity (default: info)
 exporter.lock_wait_timeout                 | Set a lock_wait_timeout (in seconds) on the connection to avoid long metadata locking. (default: 2)
+exporter.enable_lock_wait_timeout          | Enable the lock_wait_timeout connection parameter. Makes the exporter compatible with older versions of MySQL. (default: true)
 exporter.log_slow_filter                   | Add a log_slow_filter to avoid slow query logging of scrapes.  NOTE: Not supported by Oracle MySQL.
 tls.insecure-skip-verify                   | Ignore tls verification errors.
 web.config.file                            | Path to a [web configuration file](#tls-and-basic-authentication)
diff --git a/collector/exporter.go b/collector/exporter.go
index 4e98ea25..c49b990d 100644
--- a/collector/exporter.go
+++ b/collector/exporter.go
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ var (
 		"exporter.lock_wait_timeout",
 		"Set a lock_wait_timeout (in seconds) on the connection to avoid long metadata locking.",
 	).Default("2").Int()
+	enableExporterLockTimeout = kingpin.Flag(
+		"exporter.enable_lock_wait_timeout",
+		"Enable the lock_wait_timeout MySQL connection parameter.",
+	).Default("true").Bool()
 	slowLogFilter = kingpin.Flag(
 		"exporter.log_slow_filter",
 		"Add a log_slow_filter to avoid slow query logging of scrapes. NOTE: Not supported by Oracle MySQL.",
@@ -87,8 +91,13 @@ type Exporter struct {
 
 // New returns a new MySQL exporter for the provided DSN.
 func New(ctx context.Context, dsn string, scrapers []Scraper, logger *slog.Logger) *Exporter {
-	// Setup extra params for the DSN, default to having a lock timeout.
-	dsnParams := []string{fmt.Sprintf(timeoutParam, *exporterLockTimeout)}
+	// Setup extra params for the DSN
+	dsnParams := []string{}
+
+	// Only set lock_wait_timeout if it is enabled
+	if *enableExporterLockTimeout {
+		dsnParams = append(dsnParams, fmt.Sprintf(timeoutParam, *exporterLockTimeout))
+	}
 
 	if *slowLogFilter {
 		dsnParams = append(dsnParams, sessionSettingsParam)