Can someone describe how the cooling system operates on my '95 C280. On most cars that I'm familiar with, the coolant is pumped from one radiator tank (lower tank on conventional systems) through the engine, out the top through the thermostat and into the other tank where it flows through the core to cool and then back to the original tank and repeats the flow process. However, it appears that on the MB it is pumped from one tank, through the engine, out the top through the thermostat, then back into the same tank! What am I missing here?

What you are missing is the fact that the inflow track enters via the upper hose connector on the side of the radiator, flows across the core to the left, does a 180 and come back and returns via the lower radiator fitting. This is a good design as I remember reading that it increases the cross sectional cooling area. It only looks like there is just one chamber on the radiator.

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Jeff L
1987 300e
1989 300e
1987 BMW 325