how much of a pain are they to replace

 

By owner is actually pretty simple if you have a good spring compressor and air impact to remove the crown nut that holds the strut/spring together.
The rest is just basic hand tools.

 

^Exactly as he said. I'm not sure you can remove the crown nut without an impact wrench. We dropped mine out and took it up the road to a local tire shop. He charged me $20 to take the old springs off and put the new springs on.

 

If you get the Quick Strut variety (there is contoversy on that, mine work fine), you don't need the spring compressor or fear death & dismemberment. Just a jack, jackstands, basic tools (1/2 inch drive helpful), 6 bolts/nuts and 30 minutes a side. NO alignment required, get it done if that would let you sleep, but NOT really required.

The job does not even take 1 beer to complete, unless there is a football game on TV.