The paper reports the synergistic effect of lithium salt and non-ionic surfactant in improving the tribological and anticorrosion performance of water based lubricant. The synergy comes from the in-situ formation of ionic liquids type of complex. The lubricating and anti-wear behaviour of 2% lithium salt +18% non-ionic surfactants additives in water for steel/steel contacts were evaluated with lithium salt and surfactant only as the control comparisons. The tribological results show that this additive has better lubricating performance than 2% lithium salt or 20% non-ionic surfactant. The lubricating mechanism was tentatively discussed according to electrical contact resistance measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis.