New 1998 Owner, Getting Started

I forgot to say that this is my first Toyota.

You have a timing chain, so, no need to replace that. Did your car come with an owner's manual or maintenance guide? One of those will answer all your questions. In brief, tho, keep up your oil changes, every 30k or two years replace your air filter and coolant, keep up with regular transmission fluid refill/replace, and you should be good to go. Since you just got it and may not know its full history, you may want to go ahead and do new plugs, coolant, air filter, etc. Welcome to Toyota- welcome to Corolland!

I got the owner's manual and maintenance guide.

I would like to get the factory service manual.

I see a guy has one on CD on ebay. Is that one any good?

Where is the best place to get the paper manual?

I did not have any major problems with my 98. Only common items that were problematic on 98-99 models - belt tensioner and tie-rod ends.

Make sure to check oil level regulary, 98-99 are known for oil consumption.

def. replace the air filter more often than 2 years if unless you drive in a clean room.

probably one of the cheapest and easiest though most valuable maintenance activities next to proper tire inflation (and oil changes but some people dont like to do those themselves b/c they can get messy.)

Re: air filter replacement: I follow the maintenance guide that came with the car. My air filter gets replaced every two years or 30k, just like the people who built the car say it should be. Maybe that's different for a 98?