Ball screw systems have been used for positioning elements of machine tools and precision tables. In order to maintain the high rigidity and accuracy, a certain amount of preload is applied between the nut and the screw of ball screw systems. However, large amount of the preload oncreases the frictional heat. The temperature rises remarkably at the high speed motion, and the thermal expansion degrades the positioning accuracy. In this paper, a finite difference method is applied to analyse temperature distributions and thermal expansions of the ball screw system according to preload conditions and rotational speeds. Some simulation results show that the developed methodology is appropriate to study the thermal expansion characteristics of ball screw systems.