central locking issue

[itsarebuild]

I have an new issue that is occurring in my central locking system. I have searched and read a bunch of posts in this forum about issues with this system, but I cant find one that identifies all of the scenarios I am dealing with so I am asking new question.

I have always used the trunk lock to activate the central locking on my car. This has worked well up till a week ago when I tried to lock the car from the trunk and after the locks activated, the central locking system immediately unlocked the doors and trunk. Leaving the lock in the vertical position made the locks lock and unlock repeatedly until I returned the key to the unlocked position. After some door opening and closing of all four doors the car eventually locked and stayed locked. But randomly the doors will either fail to lock at all from the trunk lock, or lock all the doors and leaver the trunk unlocked, or repeat the first scenario with the locking and unlocking repeatedly.

Any ideas where to start diagnosing the issue?

thanks!

[cscracker]

The locking and unlocking behavior is caused when the car thinks the doors are open. It's specifically designed to prevent you from locking it while the doors are open. Test and clean the contacts on the door switches, replace if necessary. If all your switches are good, it's probably either the control module or a wiring fault, which will be harder to diagnose and fix. Unfortunately, the other problems you're having are a bit on the strange side and also lean toward a failing module or wiring fault.

[itsarebuild]

so the randomness of the symptoms seems to have stabalized a little. i hope that helps with diagnosis! no when i lock the vehicle from the trunk all of the doors, the gas cap cover, and the trunk lock and stay locked. the system doesnt try to unlock everything like it used to, but the drivers door just wont lock at all. i could conceivably just press down the lock on the inside, and i tested doing just that with the windows down and it stayed locked, but i REALLY don't want to depend on the key in the drivers door as this and every other e30 board is peppered with threads about keys breaking off. any ideas? actuator maybe?