I'm submitting a...

[ ] Regression (a behavior that used to work and stopped working in a new release)
[x] Bug report
[ ] Feature request
[ ] Documentation issue or request
[ ] Support request => Please do not submit support request here, instead see https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#question

Current behavior

The HttpClient throws an error "Http failure during parsing for ..." in the case of an empty 200 response in IE11.
The issue is not reproducible in Chrome and Firefox.
Setting a responseType option to "text" helps to resolve the issue.

Expected behavior

IE11 returns null by analogue with other browsers.

Minimal reproduction of the problem with instructions

Make an HttpClient.get request to an endpoint with the an empty file in IE11.
See this plunker for an example.

What is the motivation / use case for changing the behavior?

It is expected to have a consistent behavior across all browsers.

Environment

Angular version: 4.3.4

Browser:

• Chrome (desktop) version XX
• Chrome (Android) version XX
• Chrome (iOS) version XX
• Firefox version XX
• Safari (desktop) version XX
• Safari (iOS) version XX
• IE version 11
• Edge version XX

For Tooling issues:

• Node version: 6.10
• Platform: Windows