A thermo-elastohydrodynamic lubrication model of a typical VL combined reciprocating rod seal is established to analyze thermal-viscous effects on the reciprocating rod sealing system. Both the inverse and elastohydrodynamic lubrication theories are interactively applied to calculate the pressure and thickness of the lubrication film. The influence coefficient method is used to couple the fluid mechanics, macroscopic solid mechanics, and microscopic contact mechanics. The temperature field is solved using the finite-difference method. With the alternating direction implicit method, the classical heat transfer equation is discretized. The calculation results obtained with the present model are compared with those of a model without thermal correction. A considerable difference is found between the two calculations especially at high rod velocities.