The effect of wax in an acrylic urethane (AU) film on the adhesion strength between AU film and steel sheet treated with Zn-Ni and chromium was investigated by varying the amount of wax using a pull-off. test. The adhesion strength decreased as the amount of wax increased. Since the wax in the AU film can react with the reactive functional groups of imine ester (hardener), the cohesive strength of the AU film can be reduced. The distribution of wax in the AU film on a polar and a nonpolar substrate, whose contact angles with water were 30 degrees and 75 degrees, respectively, was examined using contact angle measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The distribution of wax in the AU film was greatly affected by the degree of polarity of the substrate. In the case of the nonpolar substrate, the wax in the AU film migrated towards the film/nonpolar substrate interface to form a weak boundary layer, where the failure occurred. In the case of the polar substrate, the amount of wax at the film/polar substrate interface was much smaller than that at the film/nonpolar substrate interface and increased linearly with increasing wax content in the AU film. The friction coefficient of the AU film against chromated steel sheet was also measured with varying amounts of imine-ester and additives such as wax and colloidal silica. The friction coefficient appears to be influenced only by the amount of wax.