This paper, aimed at finding a good soft overlay to prevent scuffing of bearing alloys, studies systematically the friction and wear behaviour and the microstructure of two-element (Pb-Sn) and three-element (Pb-Sn-Ni) brush-plating layers. The friction and wear tests were conducted on an Amsler testing machine. The counterpart of the plating layers was 52100 bearing steel without plating. The results show that the composition and microstructure of the brush-plating layers are related closely to the current density of the brush-plating technology and that the three-element overlay exhibits a much lower friction coefficient and excellent scuffing resistance. On the basis of analyses of the wear surface, cross- of wear track and wear debris by scanning electron microscopy, the wear mechanism of the plating layers is discussed.