This work aims to improve the adhesive strength between AlTiSiN coating and tool substrate, reduce the roughness of coating surface, decrease the coating peelings during the cutting, and increase the cutting life of coated tool. The substrate materials were cleaned by ion source enhanced multi-arc ion plating equipment to prepare AlTiSiN coatings. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), roughness tester, scratch tester and milling cutting tests were adopted to explore the effect of different Ar+ ion cleaning processes on structure, adhesion of the film to the substrate and coating surface morphology of AlTiSiN coating before deposition and investigate the effect of different cleaning processes on coating cutting mechanism and properties. The phase structure of AlTiSiN coating was mainly composed of (Al,Ti) N solid solution phase, and the coatings showed columnar growth along substrate. With the increase of etching currents from 40 A to 100 A during high energy Ar ion etching pretreatment, the surface roughness Ra value of coating decreased from 140 nm to 69 nm, and the Sq value decreased from 226 nm to 117 nm. The adhesion strength Lc2 between coatings and substrates increased from 41 N to 52 N. The results of cutting against DC53 mold results showed that the coating peeling rate reduced and the cutting life of coated tools increased from 11 m to 23 m as the etching currents increased from 40 A to 100 A. The high-energy ion etching pretreatment can effectively increase the adhesive strength between coatings and substrates and reduce the coating surface roughness, so as to improve the service life of coated tools. In the cleaning process, the greater etching current intensity results in the better cleaning effect, and the better cutting performance of the coated tools.