Abstract: Indentation defects were prefabricated on the bending fatigue specimen taken from EA4T steel axel by diamond indenter extrusion method. The influence of indentation depth on the fatigue strength was studied. The revised Murakami model was used to predict the fatigue strength and the fatigue indicator parameter was introduced to construct the fatigue life prediction model. The strain near indentation was analyzed by the finite element method. The results show that the fatigue strength of the sample decreased with increasing indentation depth. Compared with the sample without indentation, the fatigue strength was slightly reduced with the indentation depth of 0.052 mm, and significantly reduced with the indentation depth of 0.112 mm and 0.504 mm. The fatigue cracks were initiated at the prefabricated indentation short diagonal with large stress concentration, the finite element simulation results was accurate. The revised Murakami model could accurately predict the fatigue strength of the sample with indentation defect, and the constructed fatigue life prediction model had high accuracy. The ratio of the measured value to the predicted value was within the range of two times the error factor.