diff --git a/diag_manager/fms_diag_file_object.F90 b/diag_manager/fms_diag_file_object.F90
index f72f1d7ef..612e080db 100644
--- a/diag_manager/fms_diag_file_object.F90
+++ b/diag_manager/fms_diag_file_object.F90
@@ -1007,7 +1007,7 @@ end subroutine define_new_subaxis
 !! So it needs to make sure that the start_time is the same for each variable. The initial value is the base_time
 subroutine add_start_time(this, start_time)
   class(fmsDiagFile_type), intent(inout)       :: this           !< The file object
-  TYPE(time_type),         intent(in)          :: start_time     !< Start time to add to the fileobj
+  TYPE(time_type),         intent(in)          :: start_time     !< Start time passed into register_diag_field
 
   !< If the start_time sent in is equal to the diag_init_time return because
   !! this%start_time was already set to the diag_init_time
@@ -1015,7 +1015,8 @@ subroutine add_start_time(this, start_time)
 
   if (this%start_time .ne. diag_init_time) then
     !> If the this%start_time is not equal to the diag_init_time from the diag_table
-    !! this%start_time was already updated so make sure it is the same or error out
+    !! this%start_time was already updated so make sure it is the same for the current variable
+    !! or error out
     if (this%start_time .ne. start_time)&
       call mpp_error(FATAL, "The variables associated with the file:"//this%get_file_fname()//" have"&
       &" different start_time")
diff --git a/test_fms/diag_manager/test_prepend_date.F90 b/test_fms/diag_manager/test_prepend_date.F90
index 393406d94..24a5ae298 100644
--- a/test_fms/diag_manager/test_prepend_date.F90
+++ b/test_fms/diag_manager/test_prepend_date.F90
@@ -25,13 +25,13 @@ program test_prepend_date
                               register_diag_field, diag_manager_init, diag_manager_end, register_static_field, &
                               diag_axis_init
   use time_manager_mod, only: time_type, operator(+), JULIAN, set_time, set_calendar_type, set_date
-  use mpp_mod,          only: FATAL, mpp_error
+  use mpp_mod,          only: FATAL, mpp_error, input_nml_file
   use fms2_io_mod,      only: FmsNetcdfFile_t, open_file, close_file, read_data, get_dimension_size
   use platform_mod,     only: r4_kind
 
   implicit none
 
-  integer         :: id_var0, id_var2 !< diag field ids
+  integer         :: id_var0, id_var2, id_var1 !< diag field ids
   integer         :: id_axis1         !< Id for axis
   logical         :: used             !< for send_data calls
   integer         :: ntimes = 48      !< Number of time steps
@@ -39,12 +39,25 @@ program test_prepend_date
   type(time_type) :: Time             !< "Model" time
   type(time_type) :: Time_step        !< Time step for the "simulation"
   integer         :: i                !< For do loops
+  logical         :: pass_diag_time = .True.   !< .True. if passing the time to diag_manager_init
+
+  integer :: io_status !< Status when reading the namelist
+
+  namelist / test_prepend_date_nml / pass_diag_time
 
   call fms_init
+
+  read (input_nml_file, test_prepend_date_nml, iostat=io_status)
+  if (io_status > 0) call mpp_error(FATAL,'=>test_prepend_date: Error reading input.nml')
+
   call set_calendar_type(JULIAN)
 
   ! This is going to be different from the base_date
-  call diag_manager_init(time_init=(/2, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0/))
+  if (pass_diag_time) then
+    call diag_manager_init(time_init=(/2, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0/))
+  else
+    call diag_manager_init()
+  endif
 
   Time = set_date(2,1,1,0,0,0)
   Time_step = set_time (3600,0) !< 1 hour
@@ -54,6 +67,9 @@ program test_prepend_date
   id_var0 = register_diag_field  ('ocn_mod', 'var0', Time)
   id_var2 = register_static_field ('ocn_mod', 'var2', (/id_axis1/))
 
+  ! This is a different start_time, should lead to a crash if the variable is in the diag table yaml
+  id_var1 = register_diag_field  ('ocn_mod', 'var1', set_date(2,1,6,0,0,0))
+
   used = send_data(id_var2, real(123.456))
   do i = 1, ntimes
     Time = Time + Time_step
diff --git a/test_fms/diag_manager/test_prepend_date.sh b/test_fms/diag_manager/test_prepend_date.sh
index 49a2b21c0..13bbf7c77 100755
--- a/test_fms/diag_manager/test_prepend_date.sh
+++ b/test_fms/diag_manager/test_prepend_date.sh
@@ -58,5 +58,30 @@ test_expect_success "Running diag_manager and checking that the date was prepend
   mpirun -n 1 ../test_prepend_date
 '
 
+cat <<_EOF > diag_table.yaml
+title: test_prepend_date
+base_date: 1 1 1 0 0 0
+diag_files:
+- file_name: test_non_static
+  time_units: hours
+  unlimdim: time
+  freq: 1 hours
+  varlist:
+  - module: ocn_mod
+    var_name: var0
+    reduction: average
+    kind: r4
+  - module: ocn_mod
+    var_name: var1
+    reduction: average
+    kind: r4
+_EOF
+
+printf "&diag_manager_nml \n use_modern_diag=.true. \n/ \n &test_prepend_date_nml \n pass_diag_time=.false. \n /" | cat > input.nml
+
+test_expect_failure "Running diag_manager with fields that have a different start time (test $my_test_count)" '
+  mpirun -n 1 ../test_prepend_date
+'
+
 fi
 test_done