Given that fretting wear causes failure in steel wires, we carried out tangential fretting wear tests of steel wires on a self-made fretting wear test rig under contact loads of 9 and 29 N and fretting amplitudes ranging from 5 to 180 μm. We observed morphologies of fretted steel wire surfaces on an S-3000N scanning electron microscope in order to analyze fretting wear mecha-nisms. The results show that the fretting regime of steel wires transforms from partial slip regime into mixed fretting regime and gross slip regime with an increase in fretting amplitudes under a given contact load. In partial slip regime, the friction coefficient has a relatively low value. Four stages can be defined in mixed fretting and gross slip regimes. The fretting wear of steel wires in-creases obviously with increases in fretting amplitudes. Fretting scars present a typical morphology of annularity, showing slight damage in partial slip regime. However, wear clearly increases in mixed fretting regime where wear mechanism is a combination of plastic deformation, abrasive wear and oxidative wear. In gross slip regime, more severe degradation is present than in the other regimes. The main fretting wear mechanisms of steel wires are abrasive wear, surface fatigue and friction oxidation.