e34 driver door not closing

[andmd]

Yeah, my door didn't latch on occasion. I had to drive home from work once holding the door shut. If the lock's not in the right position, the mechanical latch won't activate when you shut the door. If you've got a spare hour, remove the door panel (being careful not to break the plastic clips out of their position on the panel), unhook the actuator and turn the key in the lock to give it power and see if it does anything. The actuator is a black plastic box, roughly 3 inches long, with a rubber wiring boot on one end and a white plastic rod sticking out of the other. There's a loop in the end of the white plastic rod through which hooks a metal piece that's connected to the locking mechanism. The actuator should be connected to the door by two Torx screws, and there's a metal clip that keeps the wiring boot connected. It's not a terribly complicated process, and there's a writeup online. I'll try to find it.

Edit: Here's the site: http://www.bmw4life.com/doorLockActuator.htm.
It won't be the same as your setup, but it should give you an idea of where to go. BTW, you don't need to remove the actual door lock mechanism.

Driver door actuator's prolly doing nothing, no movement of the knob. The driver side lock has been acting up a bit earlier this fall too, had to use passenger side lock sometimes.

Did you have problems with closing the door too in addition to the lock not working? For a layman, it feels a bit strange that the latch that just keeps the door shut would be dependant on the actuator etc when closing the door... but it also sounds a bit far-fetched to think those 2 things just happened at once by chance.

Hope I get my baby fixed up for her 17th birthday next week