I have a 96 850 and just went through this whole process. If you have a spring compressor tool, then really the whole job is just a matter of time, vicegrips and a good metric ratchet set. I just replaced all the suspension on my car with the Bilstein Touring Class and the car drives great now. Just over the holidays I drove 1500 miles (NY to MD, MD to NC, NC to MD, MD to NY) and had no problems.

If you are going to do this job though, please make sure you torque everything to specs. For me, being a student, I did all the labor myself and it took me 6 hours per front side to replace the strut, strut mount, spring seat, control arm, sway bar end link, rotor, and pads.