In the present study, corrosive wear is investigated in cylinders of locomotive, vehicle, tank and stationery diesel engines. Investigation was carried out in the field and under controlled laboratory conditions. Local fuels of different sulphur content and lubricating oils having different total base number (TBN) were used. Wear was determined qualitatively by a scanning electron microscope and quantitatively by bore dial guages and lubricating oil analysis using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results show that the range of local wear coefficients is considerably higher than the international range. Wear rates for chrome plated liners are much smaller than that of cast iron liners. Simplelgeneralised relations for predicting the rate of wear as a function of oil TBN are proposed.