im going to change my brakes on wed do i need a special tool. anything i need to know about changing them thanks

 

How involved are you getting? Brake pads, rotors, calipers, lines, drums, shoes? What exactly are you changing?

 

sorry just the pads

 

For fronts you'll need an 18mm socket to remove the caliper; a 6 point, 1/2" drive would be best. A breaker bar would be a good idea also, those caliper bolts are tight buggers. A 6" C-clamp to compress the caliper pistons.

You may also need a new hardware kit; about $15, caliper lube, brake cleaner, thread locker, wire brush to clean caliper.

I haven't done rears yet.

 

Since it sounds like this is your first brake job, this may help...
http://www.rmftc.com/howtos/brakes/brakes.html
It doesn't cover absolutely everything, but it does pretty good .

 

You don't always have to remove the caliper bracket, depending on how wore down your pads are, the caliper can just slide off after taking the 13mm bolts off the caliper. Oh yea, to answer your question more specifically, there is no special tool needed to change the pads. Once you remove the caliper via the 2 13mm bolts the pads slide right out of the caliper bracket and the new ones slide in their place. You have to compress your caliper pistons before the caliper will go back on. Take one of the old pads and place it over the pistons and use a big c-clamp to compress them. You don't have to bleed your brakes or do anything with your lines to compress the pistons.

 

Dont forget to lube the sliders too