This paper aims to reassess the Riemann solver for compressible fluid flows in Lagrangian frame from the viewpoint of modified equation approach and provides a theoretical insight into dissipation mechanism. It is observed that numerical dissipation vanishes uniformly for the Godunov‐type schemes in the sense that associated dissipation matrix has zero determinant if an exact or approximate Riemann solver is used to construct numerical fluxes in the Lagrangian frame. This fact connects to some numerical defects such as the wall‐heating phenomenon and start‐up errors. To cure these numerical defects, a traditional numerical viscosity is added, as well as the artificial heat conduction is introduced via a simple passage of the Lax–Friedrichs type discretization of internal energy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.