In this paper, a vibro-impact gear model incorporating the influences of the lubricant and backlash is formulated. Then, a new computational algorithm validated in comparison with the ''stiff'' solvers, by defining a transition area and adopting the double-changed time step, is proposed to identify the influences of the lubricant on the dynamic system. The results obtained in this paper indicate that the proposed numerical algorithm not only guarantees the precision of solutions, but also reduces the calculation speed of the whole system. The lubricant can potentially reduce the vibrations in the gear system, and the boundaries for double-sided impacts, single-sided impact and no impact are mainly dependent on the fluctuating driving torque and the stiffness of the lubricant. These results could provide a good source of information on the utilization of vibro-impact modeling and simulation for the study of spur gears dynamic performance, and quantification of the factors such as gear backlash, input power or torque fluctuations, lubrication, rattle, etc. In addition, the proposed numerical method could be used as a basic program of vibro-impact in Matlab environment. Keywords Gear system Á Computational algorithm Á Nonlinear vibration Á Gear backlash À;þ Maximum time step for lubricant and solid contact h p;g Rotational displacements of the pinion and gear