Friction coefficient plays an important role in determining the contact tractions and consequently the stresses that drive damage mechanisms in components subjected to fretting fatigue. Friction coefficient evolves to different magnitudes at different points in the contact interface. Effect of this spatial variation in friction coefficient on the shear distribution for contacts involving similar isotropic materials has been presented in this paper. Full sliding tests have been conducted to obtain friction coefficient as a function of sliding distance. Well characterized set of experiments to determine the average friction coefficient in fretted specimens is briefly discussed. Existing analysis for obtaining the shear traction for arbitrary smooth profiles has been modified to take the variation of friction coefficient from one point to another into account. Using this analysis, spatial variation of friction coefficient in fretted specimens has been obtained. It has been found that using a constant friction coefficient (equal to the slip zone friction coefficient) throughout the contact zone is a good enough approximation in most of the cases. However, in some cases, when the slip zones extend into regions where the friction coefficient has not reached the asymptotic value, actual distribution of friction coefficient gives a different shear stress distribution as compared to a constant slip zone friction coefficient. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.