AbstractThe thermal EHD model of rectangular contact has been applied to analysing the effect of coatings on thermal conditions in EHL. The model takes into account variation of oil viscosity along and across the oil film according to the Barus formula. The solution has been obtained by means of the Newton‐Raphson method. The effect of the coating has been examined by comparison of the temperature distributions in the oil film and on the surfaces of rollers for the cases with and without coating. In addition, the oil film shapes and minimum values, the pressure distributions and traction coefficients, have also been compared.