Well I found time to fit the new passenger door latch/actuator today. Not as bad as I feared, all because of so much helpful advice on the forums. Hopefully I left thanks as appropriate, but special mention to Arctic whose pics helped it make sense
You absolutely have to remove the bottom bolt in the window track to finesse the old actuator out and the new in, but a little patience and it's not so bad. It was easier to fit the door button wire linkage to the actuator after the actuator was bolted in. Lastly I put a tie wrap around the plastic holder connecting the rod from the outer door handle to the actuator lever as recommended. I took the opportunity to silicone spray the window tracks a little too and can report the front passenger door is now working correctly. Yay!
So I turned my attention to the driver's door. I re-connected the new battery ( showing 13.14 volts after resting three days). I then locked the car with the fob while holding down the bonnet switch. Every door locked. I released the bonnet switch and the alarm was loud, silenced with the fob. I then unlocked with the fob, and only the driver's door didn't unlock. The actuator definitely moved, but not enough to unlock it. Tried the key manually, no luck. Tried the key manually while using the fob button and it popped open. So I locked the door, and was able to remove the key, and entered the car from the passenger side. I started the engine and she fired up very strongly, ran the engine for a minute and then turned the engine off. Locked the doors with the fob, then unlocked. The driver's door remained shut despite the actuator clearly moving up with definite decent amplitude. The interior handle wouldn't open the driver's door either, so I exited through the passenger side.
I'm starting to think I need a new driver's door actuator as well.
