The internal stress of acidic electroless nickel deposits on zincated aluminum was determined by spiral contractometer. Several plating conditions such as inhibitor and complexing agent concentrations and pH affecting the internal stress were studied. The resulting intrinsic stress contribution to the total stress was discussed in terms of phosphorous content of the deposit, solution pH, and surface morphology. However, the most important was found to be thermal stress for the total stress of Al substrate, because of high thermal expansion coefficient of the aluminum substrate.