Drivers door stays locked on a E34

[bax]

I have a 1996 E34 and my driver door is stuck in a locked position. The central locking seems to be working fine, all the door lock tabs move up and down but somehow the driver door remains locked.

I have found a lot of issues on the internet similar to this for the E34's where there is some locking issue but none where the door tab is working but the lock mechanism is not.

So does anyone know what the cause of this is and how to fix it?

Any help would be really appreciated, even just help with opening the door!!

PS I've got the door card off on the drivers side so I've been able to poke around a bit but I haven't been able to trigger anything that would unlock the door. I'd be willing to take the full door panel off if I was sure that would allow me to fix this but I know I won't be able to take the lock out with the door closed. So before I hear of some trick or otherwise I'd prefer to leave it on.

[bax]

Update: I've taken the panel off but everything looks fine. The problem as far as I can tell is located between the actuator and the lock itself. I have a small amount of access to get inside the actuator. So does anyone know how to open the locked door manually by either flicking something inside the actuator maybe with a wire or something or have any other ideas?

[Penngwyne]

I assume it won't open from inside or outside?

If the lock button is going up and down but the door is not unlocking it sounds as if something is disconnected or out of adjustment.

With the doors unlocked and the window up (if you have the inside panel off completely) disconnect the battery (so the window doesn't come down on your hands)and have a poke round inside the door.

To get the back door of my e34 open I had to remove the drive motor assembly before I could open the door (as it was deadlocked) which was not fun

[bax]

Yeah it's locked from both the inside and outside and I still haven't found a way of opening the door. I did have a poke around inside but I can't see anything that would allow me to unlatch the lock.

I agree that there is probably something disconnected but I can't honestly see anything wrong. In any case given that the lock tabs are moving up and down it must be be a breakage very close to or right at the lock itself making it very tough to open.

So in your experience there was no way of avoiding fully dismantling the motor assembly to get to a point where you could unlock the door?

[HIe34]

To synchronize the locks, close all doors, trunk lid and tailgate.
Lock the passenger door by turning the key clockwise into the emergency locking position (approximately 110 degrees from position O).
Unlock the driver's door. If any of the locks do not operate, repeat the locking procedure until the locking system is synchronized.
This might happen if a door which is not completely closed is locked, or a door handle is lifted before the interior lock button is raised.

[Penngwyne]

If synchronising doesn't work

Try pulling the lock button up by hand then seeing if the door operates? (Clutching at straws here) It just might not be moving far enough to connect the door lock

Have a look with a light and a mirror inside the door and try to make sense of the connection. You may see something has come off.

I see in the Bentley manual the emergency unlock on the drivers door only works pre July 1990

Have a look at the downloaded Hayes manual file 1948-11, section 15 talks about removing the door latch, fig 15.2 gives a general idea how it works.

I don't know if the latch comes off without having the door open