Experiments on and analyses of the waviness and roughness effects in lubricated wear related to running-in were performed. It was found that the ability of a lubricated slider to form an oil film can be determined by surface waviness which can be characterized by a waviness index W(n) and wavelength parameter lambda-0.5x. The characteristic of contact can be determined by the surface roughness, and in particular by the geometry of the asperity summits which can be characterized by the plasticity index psi. It seems that W(n), lambda-0.5x and psi-taken together provide a good criterion for assessing lubricated wear. Running-in can only improve the surface roughness effect during contact and hardly changes the surface wavelength.