If your E36 convertible's trunk won't open right after you've worked the top by hand, that's the interlock doing its job, not a new fault — the trunk and the top's storage well share the same space, so the trunk is locked out whenever the top isn't in a settled state.
After you've pulled the rear-seat emergency release, the gearmotors are decoupled and the whole system is out of sync — usually why the trunk button now does nothing
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