Front doors not locking

I have a new issue that's cropped up on my '01 530i today. When I lock the doors (with key, center console button, or after starting to drive) only the back doors are locking. The front doors are not locking. I did a check of the fuses and didn't identify any that we're blown.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Probably your door locking actuators, although two failing simultaneously seems odd. I just posted a DIY repair last weekend. Search for it. If they are failing door actuators, DO NOT try to lock your doors. If they lock and the actuator dies, you will not be able to unlock them without destroying your inner door panel to access the mechanism to open the door.

I think that both failing at the same time might be pointing to something other than the actuators.

I browsed around on some other forums. Someone mentioned they had this issue, but it resolved itself after lowering/raising the driver window. Sure enough I did this and now the locks work. The post said something about a ZVM module fault possibly to blame.

Originally Posted by 2ns2ls

I browsed around on some other forums. Someone mentioned they had this issue, but it resolved itself after lowering/raising the driver window. Sure enough I did this and now the locks work. The post said something about a ZVM module fault possibly to blame.

For the future, Fudman's excellent door lock actuator DIY is here:
- How to properly maintain a door lock (1) & a DIY for how to replace the front lock door actuator (1) & how to disable automatic door locks (1) (2)

For the record, looooong ago my passenger side door lock actuator was intermittent. maybe one in twenty all-door locks failed. I'd have to physically look to see if the door lock actually locked whenever I left the bimmer in a parking lot. I brought it to the dealership, under original factory warranty, and they had trouble finding the error - but eventually replaced the passenger door lock actuator (as far as I can recall).

Never happened since.